The major focus of the AATT Project is to improve the capacity of transport aircraft operations at and between major airports in the National Airspace System (NAS) by developing decision support tools (DST) to help air traffic controllers, airline dispatchers, and pilots improve the air traffic management and control process from gate-to gate. This project is responsible for defining, exploring, and developing advanced Air Traffic Management (ATM) system concepts to a state suitable for pre-production prototype development by the FAA and industry, leading to eventual full-scale development and deployment. The AATT project approach is to develop baseline operational concepts for the NAS that can be used to guide Project decisions regarding the value and appropriateness of ongoing work and determine the best direction for future work. Further, the operational concept will include a transition strategy from the baseline to the mature state (2015). The Project will ensure that all user classes are considered in the concept of operations.

Decision support tools that will support the AATT operational concepts will include terminal/transition/en route airspace tools for arrival, surface, and departure operations. Also included will be flight deck and ground-based tools to support Free Flight concepts. The adaptation and integration of these tools into the NAS environment will address some of the most difficult air traffic management issues. Two of these issues are operations in complex airspace and the implementation of distributed air/ground responsibilities for separation. Rather than relying on just optimal control of the movement of each aircraft within discrete airspace segments, the objective is to provide human-centered, error-tolerant automation to assist in short- and intermediate-term decision-making between pilots, controllers, and dispatchers to integrate block-to-block planning services. This will allow all airspace users to choose the best flight path for their own purpose within the constraints of safety and the needs of other users. The final focus of the project will be the assessment and validation of project objectives.