The demand for commercial air transportation is still growing in Japan. To ensure efficient and safe air transportation while accommodating the growth in demand, the ATM system is being improved, new ATC (Air Traffic Control) procedures that exploit new technologies are being introduced, and runways are being expanded or newly constructed at major Japanese airports. It is indispensable to assess the effects of these improvements by evaluating ATM system performance using actual operation data, which will also help identify areas requiring improvement.

    From taxiing-out to taxiing-in, aircraft operations involve multiple flight phases. The assessment should thus cover all the flight phases comprehensively. In addition, since the ATM system must fulfill multiple purposes, it should be assessed from many directions such as efficiency and safety.

    In the United States and Europe, indexes of ATM performance are being evaluated based on actual operation data, whereas indexes for Japanese ATM have yet to be established. We have been developing a scheme for data analysis as well as evaluating the current status of the Japanese ATM system.