Integrated ATM

Improve Air Traffic Management Collaboration

Metron Aviation has been a long supporter of the Federal Aviation Administration’s missions and goals. In response to the increasing need to bring stakeholders together, Metron Aviation supported the Collaborative Decision Making (CDM) efforts for well over a decade. With NextGen objectives upon us, Metron Aviation understands the needs of the FAA and the stakeholders, making Collaborative Air Traffic Management objectives a priority.

In order to enhance the collaboration of stakeholders in response to real-time traffic flow challenges, Metron Aviation has participated in Integrated Air Traffic Management (ATM) via Traffic Flow Management (TFM). TFM integrates individual constraint resolutions into one controlling program. Integrated TFM is an aggregation of individual Traffic Management Initiatives (TMIs) in the form of Ground Delay Programs (GDPs), Airspace Flow Programs (AFPs), Reroutes, Sequencing Programs and timebased metering. Each TMI has its own objectives and procedures that are enforced. Integrated TFM blends some of these TMIs into one system-wide solution that meets the objectives of the individual TMIs with the use of system-wide procedures. Efficient ATM in the NextGen mid-term will require the coordination and integration of traffic flow management solutions that deal with individual congestion problems into system-wide solutions. Such solutions will strategically apply the optimal distribution of ground delay and trajectory management to concurrently resolve airport departure, en route airspace, and arrival constraints.

The Integrated TFM work is designed to meet the NextGen Mid-Term objectives to build a foundation for researching integration of TMIs applying principles developed through CDM for GDPs and trajectory management. Metron Aviation is focused on developing a system-wide solution that can handle airspace and airport congestion normally managed through the use of GDPs, AFPs and Collaborative Trajectory Option Program (CTOP) TMIs. This foundation will be designed with the goal of including other TMIs such as En route Sequencing Program (ESP), Miles-In-Trail (MIT) and time-based metering to future work.

Integrated Air Traffic Flow Management maximizes the efficiency of gate-to-gate operations.