We are pleased to share that the SESAR 3 FCA project was prominently featured at the AIAA Aviation Forum 2025.
As part of the official technical programme, our panel discussion “Flight Centric ATC – A New Way to Structure the Airspace” brought together experts to discuss the paradigm shift from fixed airspace sectors to a continuously managed airspace where controllers are flexibly assigned to aircraft rather than geographic areas. This new approach challenges some of the fundamental assumptions of current ATM systems and aims to overcome long-standing bottlenecks.
The discussion highlighted the potential benefits of this approach, including:
- Controller Productivity – more flexible workload balancing enables fewer controllers to handle the same traffic.
- Airspace Capacity – removing sector boundaries allows more traffic to be managed safely with the same number of controllers.
- Cost Efficiency – scalable structures can reduce personnel and equipment costs.
At the same time, panelists emphasized that significant challenges remain. Ensuring reliable communication and surveillance coverage is essential for safety. Legal and liability frameworks must be clarified to reflect new modes of responsibility. New human–machine interfaces and decisionsupport tools will be needed to assist controllers in a sectorless environment. Finally, clear operational procedures must be defined for the allocation of controllers to flights.
The panel featured Bernd Korn, Mara Weber, Tobias Finck (DLR), and Premysl Volf (AgentFly Technologies). Each provided complementary perspectives: from operational requirements and technical enablers to simulation-based validation and long-term research vision. Following brief introductory presentations, the session evolved into a lively Q&A, with the audience engaging on both practical and strategic questions. The open exchange highlighted how strongly the topic resonates across the global ATM community.
Complementing the panel, the conference also featured the presentation of the paper “25 Years of Flight Centric ATC Research – What Happens Next?” delivered by Tobias Finck (DLR).
The paper provided a historical overview of the concept, first published in 2001 under the term sectorless air traffic management. From the outset, the idea was to restructure airspace fundamentally, eliminating traditional sector boundaries and instead treating airspace as a single, shared control area. Over the past quarter-century, this vision has evolved into what we now call Flight Centric ATC, supported by extensive research, fast-time simulations, and validation exercises.
A key milestone highlighted in the paper is that the concept has now reached technology readiness level 6 (TRL 6), meaning it is mature enough for implementation in low and medium complexity airspace at the national scale. However, unlike many concepts that conclude their research journey at this stage, Flight Centric ATC continues to raise critical questions. The paper underlined the open challenges that remain: how to scale the concept to high-complexity environments, how to design effective controller support systems, and how to integrate legal, institutional, and human performance considerations into real-world operations.
Importantly, the presentation explored why the development of this concept has taken so long, and why, despite two and a half decades of work, much still remains to be done. This honest reflection offered valuable insights into the unique complexity of transforming ATM paradigms and the persistence required to make such a vision reality.
Together, the panel and the paper presentation showcased both the maturity of the Flight Centric ATC concept and the important work still ahead. The strong turnout and lively discussions confirmed that interest in this approach is gaining momentum worldwide
