Airspace configuration management in the future air traffic management system

The SESAR operational concept is based on the move away from tactical to strategic management of flights. The predictive capabilities of the European ATM network will be improved with the objective of taking more strategic actions prior to the day of operations. This process will be supported by 4-dimensional trajectory information, managed on a shared network. In this paper, we present the collaborative decision-making negotiation processes focused at short-term phase and partially medium term phase when there is a sudden change in military airspace reservation. SESAR Operational Concept ensures the appropriate participation of all actors, including military, and the development of airspace solutions that can be implemented at short notice to address changes in the airspace demand. To support these processes, new airspace organization what-if tools will be necessary. These tools will allow defining almost in real-time tailored Airspace solutions to the users' needs. The report delivered by the European Performance Review Commission (PRC) `Evaluation of Civil/Military Airspace Utilization' stated also this need to develop what-if tools for supporting the pre-tactical Airspace Management (ASM) and Air Traffic Flow and Capacity Management (ATFCM) decision making. This paper presents the main outcomes of a validation exercise performed within the EPISODE 3 project. EPISODE 3 is an integrated project partly financed by the European Commission Directorate General for Energy and Transport which aims at exploring key aspects of the SESAR concept. The main objective of this exercise was to analyze if the negotiation processes at local level among Civil Airspace Users, Military Users, Civil/Military Airspace Manager and the Network Manager are operationally feasible when a change of airspace reservation by military is produced. For clarifying these processes, several gaming sessions were conducted at Aena (Spanish Air Navigation Service Provider). Gaming is an innovative validation technique, which is able to explore real-life situations where two or more parties must interact (with at least some choice of action) in order to meet their objectives. The suitability of the gaming technique for ATM Operational Concept Validation was tested. On the other hand, the exercise also analyzed and identified the potential functionalities of the needed what-if tools for supporting the decisions of the Airspace Managers.