ATC / AIR CARRIER COLLABORATIVE ARRIVAL PLANNING

Cheryl Quinn and Richard E. Zelenka


Abstract

Air traffic growth and air carrier economic pressures have motivated
efforts to increase the flexibility of the National Airspace System by
changing the relationship between the air traffic control service provider
and the air carriers, or system users. One of the most visible of these
efforts is the U.S. government/industry "free flight" initiative, in which
the service provider focuses on safety and cross-airline fairness, and the
user on their business objectives and operating preferences, including
selecting their own path and speed in real-time. A central tenet of the
free-flight operating paradigm is collaboration between service providers
and users on air traffic management decisions. Greater collaboration may
help air traffic management on a daily basis by decreasing the severity of
over-capacity rush periods at major airports. Collaboration would be
particularly beneficial to airline "hub" operations, where off-schedule
arrival aircraft can cause serious airport ramp difficulties, disruptions
in airline schedules, and result in large economic inefficiencies. The NASA
Collaborative Arrival Planning (CAP) project addresses some preliminary
research issues concerning collaboration between air traffic management and
the air carrier.  The CAP project leverages the NASA/FAA Center-TRACON
Automation System (CTAS), a fielded set of decision support tools that
provide computer-generated advisories for both en-route and terminal-area
air traffic controllers to manage arrival traffic more efficiently. This
paper provides an overview of the Collaborative Arrival Planning project
and a summary of the ongoing research in its two principal areas: real-time
exchange of air traffic control (ATC) and air carrier information and
incorporation of user preference information into ATC scheduling.