Design implications for teamwork in ATC

In air traffic control (ATC), teamwork is a key component among air traffic control operators (ATCOs) to safely direct theaircraft through the sky and on the ground. To be able to design for future ATC systems, we must understand how ATCOswork together, their teamwork, and how they experience and perceive teamwork, in different ATC environments. We conductedinterviews with 16 ATCOs working in four different ATC environments (en-route control, terminal area control, towercontrol for a small airport and tower control for a large airport in Sweden) and analysed the results in the light of the “BigFive” model of teamwork. The main contributions of this paper are to show: (1) how eight teamwork factors are differentlymanifested by the ATCOs in the different ATC environments, (2) that teamwork in ATC is important during routine operations,during stressful work, and during abnormal situations, and (3) that the design of the organisation, the environment,and the tools, affects teamwork and the importance of different teamwork factors.Funding agencies: Swedish Transport Administration; LFV Air Navigation Services of Sweden; NFFP (National Aviation Research Programme) - VINNOVA (Swedish Governmental Agency for Innovation Systems) [NFFP6-2013-01201]; Swedish Armed Forces; Swedish Defence Materiel Administ