Collaborative ATFM interface for airlines (CAIA)

In recent years, tactical Air Traffic Flow Management (ATFM) in Europe has moved towards a highly dynamic and adaptive process. Yet, it is commonly agreed by the main ATFM actors embracing the Central Flow Management Unit (CFMU), aircraft operators, airports and ATC providers that collaborative procedures need to be improved and fostered. The CAIA project focuses on the collaboration between aircraft operators and the CFMU. As a follow up to the collection of airline requirements, a decision support tool has been designed and prototyped based on the Collaborative Decision Making (CDM) common situation awareness concept. It aims at supplying airline users with enhanced real-time visibility on the ATFM situation within a time horizon of a few hours. Basically, the tool can be viewed as a kind of 4D congestion map. Several types of visualization have been defined. They encompass global views as well as 4D ATFM projections relative to specific flights combined with "what-if" re-routing facilities.