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The introduction of new Air Traffic Management (ATM) concepts such as Trajectory Based Operations (TBO) may produce a significant impact in all performance areas, that is, safety, capacity, flight efficiency, and others. The performance framework in use today has been tailored to the operational needs of the current ATM system and must evolve to fulfill the new needs and challenges brought by the TBO content. This paper presents a novel performance assessment framework and methodology adapted to the TBO concept. This framework can assess the key performance areas (KPAs) of safety, capacity, and flight efficiency; equity and fairness are also considered in this research, in line with recent ATM trends. A case study is presented to show the applicability of the framework and to illustrate how some of the complex interdependencies among KPAs can be captured with the proposed approach. This case study explores the TBO concept of "strategic 4D trajectory deconfliction," where the early separation tasks of 4D trajectories at multisector level are assessed. The framework presented in this paper could potentially support the target-setting and performance requirements identification that should be fulfilled in the future ATM system to ensure determined levels of performance.

This paper reports on a study of the robustness of Continuous Descent Approach (CDA) trajectories in the face of late changes to the Required Time of Arrival (RTA). We demonstrate a method for determining limits on how much the RTA can be modified, as a function of notification lead-time, without significantly impacting on optimality of the CDA. Our focus is on the period between Top Of Descent (TOD) from cruise level and arrival at a metering fix. The aim is to help determine how flexible airspace constraints would need to be in order to accommodate robust CDA. The Aircraft Intent Description Language (AIDL) is used as the modelling language.

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