Centre for Air Traffic Management Research
Andrew Cook
THE CENTRE FOR AIR TRAFFIC MANAGEMENT RESEARCH was formally established in 2022, with an eight-strong team led by Professor Andrew Cook, with Dr Luis Delgado as Co-Director, reflecting the continued growth of research in this domain at Westminster. Air traffic management (ATM) research at the University began in 1999. Early funding was primarily through EUROCONTROL (the pan-European, civil-militar y organisation dedicated to supporting European aviation and associated research) and air navigation service providers such as NATS.This later moved to most funding through SESAR (the technological pillar of Europe’s ambitious Single European Sky initiative and the mechanism that coordinates and concentrates most EU R&D activities in ATM) and Horizon 2020.
In 2022, the team was engaged in six European projects, coordinating four of these, including Engage: the European Knowledge Transfer Network for SESAR (engagektn.com).
The Engage knowledge hub (wikiengagektn.com) is designed as the one-stop, go-to source for ATM research and knowledge in Europe. It has delivered many European firsts: an interactive research map of ATM; a consolidated research repository; an interactive roadmap of future ATM concepts; a database of undergraduate and postgraduate teaching programmes; and supporting European ATM education and training – with free training courses. The KTN has supported 18 catalyst funding projects and 10 PhDs.
The other major projects running in 2022 are: Pilot3, a software engine for multi-criteria decision support in flight management (pilot3.eu) and Dispatcher3, innovative dispatching and flight operating processes (dispatcher3.eu) (both Clean Sky 2); BEACON, behavioural economics and flight prioritisation concepts (beacon-sesar.eu); NOSTROMO, next-generation open-source tools for performance modelling (nostromo-h2020.eu) and Modus, modelling and assessing the role of air transport in integrated, intermodal transport (modus-project.eu) (all SESAR).
Whilst our work contributes extensively to fundamental science innovations in ATM, it maintains a focus on applied research with industry. The team is well known for producing the standard European reference on the cost of delay. It is looking to bid strongly into SESAR 3 (Horizon Europe) in late 2022, and continues to support the MSc Air Transport Planning & Management, while now also growing its PhD engagement.
