Air traffic complexity as a key concept for multi-sector planning

This paper describes the Tactical Load. Smoother (TLS), a display of air-traffic complexity for the support of multi-sector planning operations. After an initial evaluation in the context of the Program for Harmonised ATM Research in Eurocontrol (PHARE) TLS is presently being adapted to the operational environment of the Computer Assisted National ATC Centre (CANAC) in Belgium. This paper focuses on the algorithm used to calculate air traffic complexity.