Air traffic complexity for a distributed air traffic management system

An appropriate balance between strategic and tactical air traffic management (ATM) is one of the key factors affecting the performance of an ATM system. Complexity metrics are a powerful strategic tool for reducing the number of tactical interventions and preventing excessive tactical manoeuvres. Current air traffic complexity metrics are almost exclusively designed for human-based tactical separation provided by air traffic controllers. However, new separation modes in future ATM systems are based on the delegation of separation tasks to the flight crew, which requires novel complexity metrics that are suitable for a distributed ATM system. In this study, an air traffic complexity metric was developed and analysed. Moreover, potential applications of the complexity metric were evaluated in centralized and distributed ATM systems.