In Flight Centric Air Traffic Control (FCA) the airspace is no longer divided into sectors but considered as a whole. Within the FCA airspace an air traffic controller is responsible for a certain number of aircraft throughout the entire flight segment within a given airspace, whereas other controllers are responsible for different aircraft within the same airspace. Within Flight Centric ATC, air traffic controllers can work in different team compositions: Either in Single Person Operations (SPO) or as a team consisting of FCA executive and planner controller.
The optimal team composition for an FCA airspace is defined by the geographic characteristics and prevailing traffic flows of the area. The concept aims to distribute workload across controllers evenly, by applying appropriate allocation strategies, to increase airspace capacity by eliminating sectors and to reduce fuel consumption and carbon emissions through more direct routing. To maintain safety at all times, FCA introduces new separation management tools (conflict detection and resolution) with an increased degree of automation to support controllers in fulfilling their tasks.
