Decision support for flight re-routing in Europe

Congestion has plagued air traffic in the US and in Europe for the last 20 years. To protect air traffic control from overloads, air traffic flow management ties to anticipate and prevent overloads and to limit resulting delays. This paper focuses on understanding the requirements for developing re-routing decision support systems (DSS). It identifies participants in re-routing decisions and investigates the concept of, and need, for, a re-routing decision support system. A re-routing demonstrator is discussed as a first step in the development of a DSS and a demonstrator for pre-tactical and tactical re-routings is described. User feedback is presented and issues of automation and complexity of re-routing DSS are discussed. Finally, the integration of re-routing DSS in future air traffic management systems is addressed.