How do Air Traffic Controllers Use Automation and Tools Differently During High Demand Situations?

In a human-in-the-loop simulation, two air traffic controllers managed identical airspace while burdened with higher than average workload, and while using advanced tools and automation designed to assist with scheduling aircraft on multiple arrival flows to a single meter fix. This paper compares the strategies employed by each controller, and investigates how the controllers’ strategies change while managing their airspace under more normal workload conditions and a higher workload condition. Each controller engaged in different methods of maneuvering aircraft to arrive on schedule, and adapted their strategies to cope with the increased workload in different ways. Based on the conclusions three suggestions are made: that quickly providing air traffic controllers with recommendations and information to assist with maneuvering and scheduling aircraft when burdened with increased workload will improve the air traffic controller’s effectiveness, that the tools should adapt to the strategy currently employed by a controller, and that training should emphasize which traffic management strategies are most effective given specific airspace demands.