According to EUROCONTROL (the European Organisation for the Safety of Air Navigation), there was an average of 32,495 flights per day within European airspace between June and August 2023. The safe and efficient handling of all of this traffic is possible thanks to effective Air Traffic Management (ATM).
Two of the services provided by ATM are Air Traffic Flow and Capacity Management (ATFCM) and Air Traffic Control (ATC). The purpose of ATFCM is to resolve any imbalances between air traffic demand and airspace capacity – starting days (and weeks) before a flight – whereas that of ATC is to manage traffic on the day of operation. Current ATFCM tools rely primarily on flight plan data; however, during operation, the actual trajectory of an aircraft may differ significantly from its flight plan due to bad weather, ground delays, and so on. As a result, traffic congestion (aka hotspots) can still occur and this has to be dealt with by Air Traffic Controllers (ATCOs), often without sufficient advance notice, potentially leading to high-workload situations and flight delays.
ASTRA – which stands for AI-enabled tactical FMP hotspot prediction and resolution – is a new SESAR JU project that aims to address the issues identified above by developing a novel Artificial Intelligence-based tool to predict and resolve traffic hotspots at least one hour in advance, before they are within the area of responsibility of ATCOs. ASTRA will also develop novel Human Machine Interface (HMI) concepts to allow interaction between operational staff and the tool. The potential benefits of the proposed tool include: reduced ATCO workload; increased ATC capacity; improved planning; and more predictable operations.
ASTRA is a collaboration between five partners from four countries: the at the University of Malta (Malta), (Italy), (Spain), (Switzerland) and (Switzerland). The project is being coordinated by from the University of Malta.
ASTRA officially started on Friday 1 September 2023 with a kickoff meeting held at the , in the presence of representatives of each member of the consortium. The project, which is 30 months long, is currently focusing on the Concept of Operations (CONOPS) and requirements of the proposed solution, and will reach its climax with a human-in-the-loop demonstration and validation of the solution at SKYGUIDE in 2025.
For further information about ASTRA, visit the project and follow ASTRA’s social media channels ( and ).
