Emerging Trends in Air Traffic Flow and Airport Operations Control
A special issue of Aerospace (ISSN 2226-4310). This special issue belongs to the section "Air Traffic and Transportation".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 August 2026
Special Issue Editors
Interests: air traffic management; air-ground integrated operations; multi-airport system traffic optimization; UAS traffic management
Interests: air traffic management; UAS traffic management; urban air mobility
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Global air transportation is undergoing a transformative shift, driven by the need for more integrated and adaptive approaches to optimize airspace and airport traffic operations in complex environments. Recent advances in digitalization, automation, artificial intelligence, and data analytics are transforming traditional approaches to air traffic flow and airport operations, enabling more adaptive, resilient, and environmentally conscious systems.
This Special Issue aims to highlight the latest research, technological breakthroughs, and practical applications in the field of air traffic flow and airport operations control. We invite contributions that address emerging trends such as flow-centric dynamic airspace configuration, hierarchical collaboration of air traffic flow management and air traffic control, integrated departure, arrival and surface operation (IDASO) for airport or multi-airport systems, trajectory-based operations, and integration of unmanned aerial systems (UAS) into conventional air traffic flow. We also seek contributions addressing the operational and technological challenges of synchronizing airspace and airport resources and operations at network level, including the use of advanced artificial intelligence for predictive and adaptive control. We encourage submissions that employ theoretical, numerical, or experimental approaches, as well as interdisciplinary studies that bridge the gap between research and real-world implementation.
Dr. Lei Yang
Prof. Dr. Yan Xu
Dr. Yutong Chen
Guest Editors
Manuscript Submission Information
Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.
Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Aerospace is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.
Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.
Keywords
- capacity and delay prediction
- dynamic airspace configuration
- air traffic flow and capacity management
- departure, arrival and surface management
- integrated airport and airside operations control
- collaborative multi-airport system operations
- 4D trajectory planning and management
- human-automation interactions
- integration of new entrants into controlled airspace
- resilient air traffic operation
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