Operational Concept for Collaborative Traffic Flow Management based on Field Observations

Abstract

*† ‡ § ** Based on field observations conducted at a wide range of airline operational control (AOC) facilities and the Traffic Management Unit (TMU) of several Air Route Traffic Control Centers , a human-centered, bottom-up approach was followed to develop a future concept of operation for local/tactical en route collaborative traffic flow management (TFM). Many operational issues were recorded for different types of flow constraints and the interaction between the TMU and AOC in dealing with these situations was observed. Several key traffic flow management issues were identified that caused inefficiencies in current operations (in terms of performance metrics such as delay, workload, equity, and user preferences), despite the best efforts of dispatchers and flow managers. The operational concept provides a framework for enhancing collaboration between TMUs and AOCs to mitigate these flow management issues. One key observation was that, due to high TMU workload, the interaction between the TMU and AOC is limited in current tactical TFM operations to addressing user concerns in extreme circumstances such as emergency and low fuel load. The concept of operation suggests extending the scope of TMU-AOC collaboration to start in the early stages of tactical TFM planning and continue through implementation.