European Airspace (De)Fragmentation Assessment Model

Zvonimir Rezo
Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts, Traffic Institute

Sanja Steiner
University of Zagreb, Faculty of Transport and Traffic Sciences

Tomislav Mihetec
Croatia Control Ltd.

Abstract

Airspace fragmentation represents an issue that began to be more frequently mentioned within the Air Traffic Management (ATM) domain in the last two decades. Primarily, it is frequently listed as one of the main causes contributing to inefficiency of the ATM system in Europe. However, even though the issue of the European airspace fragmentation has been recognized back in the 1990s, over the past decades it has neither been frequently studied nor comprehensively addressed. Accordingly, minor progress has been made to describe this issue in more depth. Therefore, this research paper deals with the research of performance-based airspace fragmentation (one of several European airspace fragmentation types). It presents the conceptual and methodological framework of a novel model that can be used to obtain answers to hypothetical questions of where, when, how, and whether it is possible to achieve performance-based airspace defragmentation. Accordingly, it is expected that further studies of the developed model will deliver relevant information that may contribute to a more inclusive, smart, and spatially oriented development of the ATM system in Europe.