Advanced congestion management: benefits of "what-if" modeling of compound flow-control actions

Considering the complexity of the U.S. National Airspace System (NAS), it is reasonable to expect that flow control actions are not independent. Since separate air traffic flows can intersect the same airspace regions, an interaction between flow control actions aimed at these flows may be expected. In addition, a single flow may be re-routed and then restricted with respect to spacing crossing a boundary. A new tool suite has been prototyped, which allows the "what if" modeling of multiple, concurrent flow control actions to determine their potential impact. A benefit analysis has shown significant advantage to this new approach for congestion management.