TRAVIS flight trajectory prediction

The impacts of thunderstorms on the air traffic management are very complex, as as they disrupt planned flight routes and potentially result in large-scale diversions depending on the thunderstorm situation. It is immensely important for air traffic management to know how the planned traffic flows will shift due to the weather and how the workload of air traffic controllers will change as a result. Predicting these traffic shifts is extremely complex and requires many years of experience in air traffic management.

In order to provide optimal support for air traffic controllers , Austro Control Digital Services in cooperation with the experts of the Austrian Air Navigation Service Provider (Austro Control) has developed  TRAVIS. TRAVIS predicts European’s air traffic for the next three hours. Based on machine learning, TRAVIS links the planned traffic data with thunderstorm forecasts and predicts the shifts in traffic flows in order to draw a more realistic scenario of the air traffic. This enables the calculation of optimal flight routes for all registered flights within a specified timeframe based on flight plans and weather information, such as thunderstorms. Information about upcoming, complex situations enables air traffic controllers to be deployed in the best possible way.
Optimised diversion route (blue) around thunderstorm cells (red to green) with existing airspace traffic (white)
Hard facts
  • In case of thunderstorms and other weather events, there are often significant deviations from planned air traffic
  • Information about traffic shifts due to weather influences is very important for the efficient deployment of air traffic controllers
  • TRAVIS is a forecasting system that combines planned air traffic with weather forecasts and thus performs more realistically
Benefits
  • TRAVIS quantifies the weather impact on air traffic, weather-related delays can be estimated in advance
  • TRAVIS helps to identify those flights that will be particularly affected by the weather
  • TRAVIS draws attention to upcoming critical situations

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