Air traffic controller additional work load as a result of aircraft dynamic separations

Abstract

For some years, the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), Eurocontrol and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) have proposed several initiatives as part of the effort to reduce wake mitigation separation that could increase airport capacity. Among different proposed wake mitigation concepts, dynamic wake separation has been identified as a promising method to increase airport capacity in the near-term. Dynamic wake separations take into account the environmental and aircraft dependent parameters that influence wake behavior. The intent of this paper is to study and discuss the additional workload and complexity to air traffic controllers as a result of dynamic separation standards associated with aircraft recategorization (RECAT Phase 3). There is a potential capacity benefit that could result from taking into consideration dynamic parameters; at the same time, there is an additional workload being imposed on air traffic controllers due to the complexity of non-static separations.