why does ATC control every movement at american airports, even things like apron?

Question

i mean in germany you have a "border" from which airplanes are guided by the local airport authority to their parking positions, and they are given to the tower and ATC only at a specific line while taxiing to the runway.

Answer 1

Air Traffic Control DOES NOT control every movement at all American airports.

At larger airports, ATC handles the traffic on the runways, then hands off to ground control for taxi to and from the gates or parking. ATC and Ground Control are two different activities, but both are concerned with the safe movement of aircraft on a very busy airport.

At many American regional and smaller airports, there is no traffic control at all, and many airports don't even have a control tower! Frequently, an airplane on ILS approach will be talking to a control tower many miles away in another city!

Answer 2

In the US, dominant carrier(s) control aircraft movement to and from the gates on the ramp (tarmac) area of most hub airports. This is accomplished from smaller ramp control towers, and the level of service varies from advisories to actual movement control. Ramp control authorizes and directs departures to be pushed to designated locations, and subsequently clears the aircraf to taxi to a point where FAA ATC takes control. Arrivals are handled similarly, with FAA directing flights to handoff points, where ramp control clears the aircraft to the gate while orchestrating the movement of arrivals and departures. Having the airline control who departs and who arrives allows for optimal operational performance and ensures connecting passengers have the best chance of making their connecting flights. At smaller airports, the ramp is "uncontrolled", with advisories sometimes issued by ATC.

Answer 3

While they do hand off to ground during the day, at night that's likely to be the same guy on anything but the biggest fields. On the big fields there's often even more than one ground controller, too much traffic for one guy to deal with. At somewhere like Heathrow or O'Hare the place is too physically big and has too many moving aircraft to have one guy control it all.

Just because the terminology is different doesn't mean the job is done different.

Answer 4

They don't. Ground control and air traffic control are separate.