Proactive, Reactive, and Interactive Risk Assessment and Management of URET Implementation in Air Route Traffic Control Centers

The current trend within air traffic management (ATM), as a part of the Next Generation Air Transportation System (NextGen), is to increase the airspace system capacity to operate in diminishing capacity conditions while improving standards of safety. An extensive body of research exists regarding introducing automation into air traffic control in order to create more flexible and cost-efficient operations. The User Request Evaluation Tool (URET) is a strategic support tool designed to assist controllers with timely detection of conflicts; it offers tools for checking the conflict resolution clearances. This study develops general proactive, reactive, and interactive approaches for the risk assessment and management of the system in order to achieve quality (safety and serviceability) and reliability; it also presents a case study of URET implementation in Air Route Traffic Control Centers in the past ten years. First, the reactive approach is developed to perform a Safety Management and Assessment (SMAS) evaluation, followed by developing the complementary and necessary proactive and interactive approaches. Findings show that many factors led to cases of URET usage deviating from that provided for in the original design, and for using URET less often than it was originally intended.