Can Holistic Optimization Improve Airport Air Traffic Management Performance?

Air transportation is an important factor in the economic growth of the European Union; however, the current system is already approaching its capacity and cost limits, and therefore needs to be reformed to meet the demands of further sustainable development. According to the European Commission, airspace congestion and the delays caused by it cost airlines between €1.3 and €1.9 billion a year. Several research initiatives have been launched to address air traffic management (ATM) challenges. The Single European Sky ATM Research (SESAR) program -a joint effort of the European Commission, EUROCONTROL, air navigation service providers, and the manufacturing industry -aims to define, develop, and deploy what is needed to increase the ATM performance and build Europe's intelligent air transport system. In this paper, we focus on the impact of such holistic optimization on the overall decision process and performance of air traffic control at the airport. To better understand how the algorithm can support ATCOs in their work, we analyzed the ATCOs self -reported descriptions of the current decision-making process.