Air traffic flow management

Air traffic flow management (ATFM) is the strategic process of managing aircraft flow to prevent airports and air traffic control sectors from exceeding their capacity. At its core, ATFM balances air traffic demand against the system's limitations to ensure safety and maximize the efficient use of the entire airspace, a process also known as Air Traffic Flow and Capacity Management (ATFCM).^[1]

Because only one aircraft can land or depart from a runway at a given time, and because aircraft must be separated by a certain distance or time to avoid collisions, every airport has a finite capacity; it can safely handle only so many aircraft per hour. This capacity depends on many factors, such as the number of runways available, layout of taxi tracks, availability of air traffic control, and current or anticipated weather conditions.^[2] The weather can cause large variations in capacity: strong winds may limit the number of runways available, and poor visibility may necessitate greater separation between aircraft.^[3]

When an air traffic control unit that will control a flight reaches capacity, arriving aircraft are directed towards holding patterns where they circle until it is their turn to land. However, aircraft flying in holding patterns is an inefficient and costly way of delaying aircraft, so it is preferable to keep them on the ground at their place of departure, called a ground delay program.^[1] This way, the delay can be waited out on the ground with engines off, saving considerable amounts of fuel. The careful calculation of en route times for each flight and traffic flow as a whole, which aims to minimize overall delays in the air traffic system, is highly dependent on computers.

All IFRflight plans are tracked by the Central Flow Management Unit (CFMU). Every airport and air traffic control sector has a published maximum capacity. When capacity is exceeded, measures are taken to reduce the traffic. This is termed regulation. The aim is to use capacity effectively, keeping the average delay as low as possible, while ensuring capacity is not exceeded.^[4]

على سبيل المثال، إذا كان من المقرر وصول رحلتين جويتين إلى مطار ما في نفس الوقت تمامًا، وكان المطار قادرًا على استيعاب طائرة كل خمس دقائق، فقد يتم تأخير وصول الطائرة الثانية لضمان وصولها بعد خمس دقائق من وصول الأولى. وبالمثل، يُشترط على الطائرة الأولى الإقلاع في الموعد المحدد ولا يُسمح لها بالإقلاع متأخرة. وبهذه الطريقة، لن تحتاج الطائرة الثانية إلى الدخول في مسار انتظار قبل الهبوط.

• نظام إدارة تدفق الحركة الجوية التعاوني في خليج البنغال (BOBCAT)

• الصفحة الرئيسية لمركز قيادة نظام مراقبة الحركة الجوية التابع لإدارة الطيران الفيدرالية