Image to right: A representational image from the Multi-Center Traffic Management Advisor (McTMA) decision-support tool that helps create efficient and safe arrival sequences for air traffic controllers at busy airports.

Great expectations are in store for an upgraded version of a software tool that crunches multiple streams of critical data on air traffic patterns. NASA, together with the FAA and industry partners, developed the Multi-Center Traffic Management Advisor (McTMA). The software is driven by a powerful trajectory synthesis engine that converts radar data, flight plans, and weather information into highly accurate forecasts of air traffic congestion. Tests at the Philadelphia International Airport in November 2004, and at a number of Air Route Traffic Control Centers, brought McTMA closer to full operation.

McTMA is expected to provide up to a five percent increase in capacity in the Northeast corridor along with large delay reductions. It will be nationally deployed by the FAA in the fall of 2006. The "parent" of McTMA, Traffic Management Advisor, has been in use since 2002 at several major hubs. According to the FAA, TMA is estimated to have saved airspace users more than $180 million and reduced delays by more than 72,000 hours.

McTMA Team
NASA Ames Research Center, Computer Science Corporation, Methods Corporation, Northrop Grumman, Spectrum Software, Mitre-CAASD, FAA