An agent based approach to the real time air traffic control

Abstract Congestion in the air traffic network is a problem with an increasing relevance for airlines costs as well as airspace safety. One of the major factors is the limited operative capacity of the air network. In this work an agent based approach to the real time air traffic control is proposed. The air network is considered partitioned in different sectors. Each sector has its own decision agent devoted to the air traffic control involved in. In each of these sectors, in order to guarantee the respect of both delay and capacity constraints, a real time scheduling of the flights is obtained by an iterative procedure based on a specific graph model.