Evaluation of Stream Air Traffic Operations by Adapting Dynamic Density Complexity Measure

Stream management is a novel air traffic control operational concept in which controllers control streams of aircraft that are functionally equivalent, rather than being responsible for “aircraft in airspace.” One possible benefit of stream management is workload reduction for the same number of aircraft handled. An adaptation of the dynamic density workload measure is used to evaluate stream management operations against current sector based operations within a TRACON environment. This evaluation is completed utilizing FACET software and ASDI data. Preliminary data analysis demonstrates advantages in shifting to stream operations. Input from TRACON controllers demonstrates that this shift cannot be achieved without fully understanding the nuances specific to each TRACON.