Controller team possibilities for sectorless air traffic management

Sectorless air traffic management is an en-route concept, which eliminates the need for control sectors. Instead of assigning a geographic area (sector), air traffic controllers are assigned certain aircraft. Controllers are responsible for their assigned aircraft all the way from entry to exit. In previous simulations, one controller was responsible for six aircraft at the same time. As these aircraft can be located anywhere in the sectorless airspace, controllers were provided with one traffic display for each assigned aircraft. This discussion paper suggests other possibilities for providing traffic information to sectorless air traffic controllers. Instead of having one traffic display for each aircraft under control (tiled display), controllers could work with a general map, a zoom display to magnify certain traffic situations, or a combination of such displays. We revisit the concept of controller teams and explore alternatives. In addition to working alone or in pairs of executive and controller, the sectorless air traffic management concept opens possibilities for innovative teamwork. For example, there could be a team of one coordinator and several executives, or even a control-room team. This paper gives examples of new display and team ideas and discusses their respective advantages and disadvantages. We argue that the way traffic information is displayed to controllers affects their mental models and working methods. In addition, we provide results on the tiled display from previous simulations and introduce ideas for future research.