Determining Air Traffic Complexity – Challenges and Future Development

Bruno Antulov-Fantulin
Faculty of Transport and Traffic Sciences, University of Zagreb

Abstract

Air traffic complexity is one of the main drivers of the air traffic controllers’ workload. With the forecasted increase of air traffic, the impact of complexity on the controllers' workload will be even more pronounced in the coming years. The existing models and methods for determining air traffic complexity have drawbacks and issues which are still an unsolved challenge. In this paper, an overview is given of the most relevant literature on air traffic complexity and improvements that can be done in this field. The existing issues have been tackled and new solutions have been given on how to improve the determination of air traffic complexity. A preliminary communication is given on the future development of a novel method for determining air traffic complexity with the aim of designing a new air traffic complexity model based on air traffic controller tasks. The novel method uses new solutions, such as air traffic controller tasks defined on pre-conflict resolution parameters, experiment design, static images of traffic situations and generic airspace to improve the existing air traffic complexity models.