Predictability and Flexibility The challenge of maintaining the network’s robustness

Flexibility and predictability are two sides of the same coin. Both these central aspects in ATM have been identified in the ICAO Framework as key performance areas determining the quality of the operational service provided to the civil and military airspace users. However, with more and more volatile traffic there seems to be less predictability in air traffic. This increases the need to become more and more flexible to adapt to a changing environment.

Aviation - and thus air traffic management - faces substantial changes due to geopolitical, economic, environmental and social developments forcing air navigation service providers to act as flexibly as possible without endangering the robustness of the European aviation network. Therefore, it is crucial to know to what extent, when and at which level of accuracy traffic developments can be predicted.

All aviation partners play their part in the operational value chain, in quantitative, time and spatial distribution. Modern statistical methods and innovative technologies and concepts such as artificial intelligence may pave the way for a better use of new and more detailed data sets supporting both prediction and adaptation – benefitting the whole aviation value chain.