Performance-based Air Traffic Management: Evaluation of En Route Benefits

The Joint Planning and Development Office (JPDO) has developed a concept of operations to communicate the key operating principles and characteristics of the Next Generation Air Transportation System (NextGen). The goals for NextGen are aimed at significantly increasing the capacity, safety, efficiency, and security of air transportation operations and through doing so, improve the overall economic well being of the country. These benefits are achieved through a combination of new procedures and advances in the technology deployed to manage passenger, air cargo, and air traffic operations. In many cases, this vision and plan builds on work done by international aviation organizations that represent a globally harmonized set of concepts for the future. The Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA’s) strategy will evolve operations toward NextGen in a way that integrates proven technologies, can be scaled for the future, and couples advanced ground automation systems and advanced aircraft capabilities. MITRE’s Center for Advanced Aviation System Development (MITRE/CAASD) has developed Performance-based Air Traffic Management (ATM) as a significant step toward NextGen, while meeting the FAA’s need for capacity and productivity benefits. Performance-based ATM integrates advanced capabilities that will provide vastly improved surveillance, navigation, data communications, and automation for ground and airborne systems with changes in service provider roles and responsibilities. During 2006 and 2007, Performance-based ATM evaluations produced a concrete assessment of benefits, relative to the current en route ATC environment. Highfidelity simulations of today's automation environment were contrasted with an advanced future environment in which Performance-based ATM—a combination of various available technologies and new procedures—will be used. The methods and results of the Performance-based ATM evaluations of 2006 and 2007 are presented here.