Abstract

The aviation community worldwide recognizes that there is a need for deeper investigations in the evolution of air traffic, especially in congested areas. In the current chapter, I will use my 35-year experience in aeronautical engineering, and most recently in large programs such as NextGen ^* . in the United States and SESAR ^† in Europe. I will focus more specifically on SESAR, whose definition phase started in 2005 to “define, develop and deploy what is needed to increase Air Traffic Management (ATM) performance and build Europe’s intelligent air transport system.” Funding for this initial phase was shared by the European Union (50 MEUR ^‡ ) and Industry (10 MEUR). SESAR development phase stared in 2008 just after the completion of the definition phase. It is scheduled until 2024, and divided into two subphases: SESAR 1 program (2.1 BEUR ^§ from 2008 to 2016), and SESAR 2020 program (1.6 BEUR until 2024). The European Union, industry, and Eurocontrol equally share funding. SESAR deployment phase started in 2015 and is scheduled to finish in 2035.