As the aviation sector rebounds and global air traffic nears pre-pandemic highs, a strategic question looms large for industry leaders and regulators alike:
Are traditional Air Traffic Management solutions still sufficient to meet future capacity demands—or is a disruptive rethink overdue?
Despite significant investment, flagship modernisation programmes like SESAR and NextGen have delivered incremental improvements rather than the systemic transformation originally envisioned. Progress in areas like PBN, surveillance, and data integration is clear—but legacy infrastructure, fragmented governance, and protracted implementation timelines continue to limit impact at scale. Consider delays in Europe have increased following recovery from Covid yet traffic numbers have yet to fully recover.
In contrast, emerging disruptive concepts are showing real potential.
Consider SmartSlot by SHIFT Aviation Solutions Ireland (SASI)—a data-driven, predictive platform that optimises airport and airspace slot allocation in real time. Rather than managing congestion reactively, it proactively aligns demand with dynamic capacity, offering a step-change in operational efficiency and network performance.
These are not marginal gains—they represent a paradigm shift in how we think about managing complexity and growth in aviation.
So the question is this:
Do we continue refining legacy frameworks—or are we ready to lead a new wave of innovation in ATM?
Your insights are welcome.
https://lnkd.in/eYdfGmVk
Rethinking Airspace Capacity: Evolution or Disruption?
