Analysis of a Collaborative Decision Making Concept in Air Traffic Management: an Airline Perspective

SESAR is the program aiming at the modernization of the Air Traffic Management infrastructure in Europe. Its target concept is centered around the notion of Business Trajectory. It will evolve out of a layered Collaborative Decision Making process. The CATS project was launched in November 2007 for studying a possible practical implementation the Business Trajectory. It is based on the definition of a Contract of Objectives, i.e. an agreement of the main Air Traffic Management actors on 4D intervals called Target Windows. They must be used by aircraft and guaranteed by airports and air navigation service providers in order to achieve punctuality at destination. In this paper, the opportunity of implementing the new concept is analyzed from an airline point of view. The Analytic Hierarchic Process is used for comparing the situation in which CATS is implemented with the business-as-usual one. The results achieved indicate that the introduction of the new concept of operations is the preferable option.