En Route Descent Advisor Concept for Arrival Metering

The En-route Descent Advisor (EDA) is a set of decision support tool (DST) capabilities for managing complex en route traffic subject to metering restrictions. The goal is to enable controller procedures to evolve from today’s emphasis on sector management towards procedures more oriented towards trajectory management. EDA will help controllers transition traffic from a “Free Flight” (minimally restricted) en route environment into an efficiently organized arrival flow into terminal airspace. EDA assists controllers with high-density arrival metering by providing fuelefficient metering-conformance advisories that are integrated with conflict detection and resolution (CD&R) capabilities. Results of engineering analyses indicate that EDA advisories, based on accurate trajectory-prediction techniques, have the potential to reduce the rate of conflict-probe false alarms and missed alerts by 20% and improve the efficiency of transition airspace operations resulting in an annual nation-wide benefit of $ 291 million.