Quote: Originally Posted by Everskyward
The second paragraph in John's post alludes to it.
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In the case of a TAA, one does not normally see feeder routes as any airway that passes thru the TAA (sometimes more than 60 NM across) can consider the TAA segment as the feeder route based on RNAV navigation.
Instead of individual feeder routes to the initial approach fix the whole TAA is a "feeder route" with a minimum altitude. This allows ATC more flexibility for transitioning airplanes from the enroute structure to the approach.
From the Instrument Procedures Handbook.
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TAAs are the method by which aircraft are transitioned from the RNAV en route structure to the terminal area with minimal ATC interaction.
That allows ATC to route aircraft direct (gasp) to the IAF from within the TAA and the minimum altitude is already stated.