In the Maverick Awards - designed to recognise outstanding achievements in collaboration, innovation, resiliency, and sustainability in ATM – the Agency was part of two winning entries.
In the Maverick: Innovation category, EUROCONTROL’s Maastricht Upper Area Centre triumphed for their Traffic Prediction Improvements (TPI) project. TPI has successfully introduced AI algorithms developed by in-house engineers into integrated flow management positions to reduce uncertainties in trajectory predictions, by extracting hidden patterns in historic data. This allows more accurate sector workload predictions and more optimal flow measures.
One of the algorithms was developed jointly with colleagues from the EUROCONTROL Innovation Hub in Brétigny. The route prediction algorithm has been in use for 10-15% of MUAC's overall traffic since 2018 and has proved resilient to system changes such as the introduction of new flows or even major events such as the global pandemic. Its scope has been gradually extended. Since 2021, an algorithm predicting take-off times has been added.