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The North Pacific (NOPAC) system is the primary air transportation link between North America and the Far East. For safety, the air traffic control (ATC) system enforces minimum separations between aircraft. Over land, where 5-nmi separation is required, continuous radar coverage and very high frequency (VHF) radio communication permit closed-loop control of aircraft. Because of unreliable communications and the lack of surveillance over the ocean, open-loop control of oceanic Bights is the norm, requiring much larger separations. This severely limits route capaaties and therefore the ability of aircraft to fly efficiently. Satellite-based communication, navigation, and surveillance technology will help reduce separations. In this paper, a computer simulation is described which models current and future ATC system operating environments traffic demands, route structures, winds, and separation criteria. Metrics are defined to highlight parameter sensitivities for optimizing direct operating costs, and to provide an assessment of performance in terms of time and fuel penalties under suboptimum operating conditions. The analysis results are intended to help the designers of the future NOPAC system increase airspace capacity and operational efficiency. Requirements are established for further research to automate ATC functions for future real-time closedloop control of aircraft over the ocean.

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A lateral offset from a jet airway, enabled by performance-based navigation (PBN), permits a faster aircraft to fly at its preferred speed instead of matching the speed of a slower aircraft in front. This paper presents the results of an analysis of pairs of aircraft with mismatched speeds obtained from the Traffic Flow Management System in 2014. Flights that could reduce their time to destination were identified geometrically. The ability of the current human-centered system to accommodate speed preferences is derived. Once the current system's performance is subtracted, the result is an estimate of the total annual benefit of PBN offset routes in reduced flight time.