The Flow Management Problem in Air Traffic Control

Abstract

A system of flow management is one of the most promising short-term approaches to alleviating the severe network-wide congestion problems that air traffic in the United States and in Europe is currently experiencing. To design such a system one must address the flow management problem (FMP), a description and discussion of which is the subject of this paper. Even simplified versions of the FMP, such as the “generic FMP” which is based on a “macroscopic” model, are very challenging. The problem is inherently stochastic and dynamic and requires a discretized representation of flows. Additional complications are caused by the need to consider the distributive effects of flow management strategies as well as by certain peculiar characteristics of the capacity/demand and flow conservation relationships associated with elements of the ATC network. A brief literature review indicates that research on the FMP is still in its very early stages.