TRB Special Report 301: Traffic Controller Staffing in the En Route Domain A Review of the Federal Aviation Administration's Task Load Model (2010) / Chapter Skim
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1 Study Charge and Background
1 Study Charge and Background
Pages 9-17
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From page 9... ...
FAA's workforce of about 15,700 air traffic controllers, working in more than 300 facilities across the country, directs the more than 50,000 aircraft operations that occur each day in the NAS. A key component of this workforce is the approximately 5,000 controllers who work in the 20 en route facilities that separate and direct aircraft operating in the air routes not assigned to towers, terminal facilities, and the military.
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From page 10... ...
The committee observed, for instance, that the models employed data on various controller actions that could be readily observed and timed, such as scanning a radar screen, typing on a keyboard, and radioing a pilot. These identified controller actions, however, were not linked to the specific tasks performed by controllers working different types of aircraft activity; for instance, a flight entering the airspace requires the controller to accept the hand-off from another controller, whereas a flight that is changing heading or altitude requires the controller to perform various checks and clearances.
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From page 11... ...
, a federally funded research and development center, happened to be developing a task-based model for analyzing the traffic capacity of en route sectors. Understanding controller time demands is important for assessing traffic capacity, since the maximum number of aircraft that can safely traverse a sector in a given time period is constrained by controlling capacity, or the total time available to controllers to work the traffic.
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From page 12... ...
Past productivity: controller head count required to match the historical best productivity for the facility. Productivity is defined as operations per controller.
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From page 13... ...
The charge also asks for advice on how the model can be adapted to an evolving air traffic control system in a next-generation air transportation environment -- one in which air traffic controller technologies and procedures may change significantly to create new controller roles, tasks, and performance capabilities. REPORT ORGANIZATION As background for the study, the next section describes the en route domain and role of the controllers in managing the traffic in each en route sector.
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From page 14... ...
It concludes with the committee's recommendations for improving the modeling effort. BACKGROUND ON EN ROUTE AIR TRAFFIC CONTROL From the towers of approximately 450 airports, local air traffic controllers direct takeoff and landing clearances as well as surface movements between gates, taxiways, and runways.
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From page 15... ...
There are more than 750 sectors of airspace over the continental United States. 3 There are multiple air traffic control domains: tower, terminal, en route, ocean, and traffic flow management.
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From page 16... ...
(b) FIGURE 1-2 En route sectors over southeastern United States: (a)
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From page 17... ...
Each sector is typically positioned with one or two controllers. A radar controller, or "R-side" controller, is the lead, responsible for radio communications with aircraft, monitoring the radar screen to maintain safe separation, and communicating with other controllers.
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