ATC / Air Carrier Collaborative Arrival Planning,” 2nd USA/Europe Air Traffic

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 Òfree flightÓ 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 freeflight 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 ÒhubÓ 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: realtime exchange of air traffic control (ATC) and air carrier information and incorporation of user preference information into ATC scheduling