Simulation at the core of ATM modernisation: ANTICIPATE highlights its role at ASDA Seminar 2026

Simulation is a cornerstone of air traffic management (ATM) research and validation, as highlighted at the ASDA Seminar 2026, held on 12-13 March 2026 in Forlì.

The seminar brought together researchers, practitioners and stakeholders from across Europe to explore how advanced simulation environments are enabling the development, testing and validation of future ATM concepts in an increasingly complex operational context. Discussions focused on the evolution of simulation infrastructures and their growing role in supporting collaborative and distributed research.

The SESAR JU research project, ANTICIPATE, actively contributed to the seminar, taking part in a dedicated session on the challenges and impact of simulation environments for ATM research, alongside other key SESAR initiatives.

Simulation is also what enables the development of ANTICIPATE's solution, which addresses more efficient en-route capacity management. The solution explores how unnecessary ATC capacity regulations can be avoided by improving coordination and enabling the delegation of aircraft clusters to adjacent sectors when needed. It brings together concepts such as multi-timeline spare capacity management, predictive detection of sector imbalances through extended planning tools, and network resilience mechanisms that support coordinated responses to disruptions. These capabilities are validated and refined through simulation, allowing researchers to assess spatio-temporal interdependencies between sectors and test how capacity can be dynamically balanced across the network.

A central theme of the seminar was the need for more modular, interoperable and scalable simulation environments. These capabilities are essential to enable distributed experimentation and strengthen collaboration across Europe's ATM research community.

Participants also addressed key challenges, including human-machine interaction, data integration and the validation of increasingly complex operational scenarios-factors seen as critical to ensuring future ATM systems remain both safe and efficient.

Organised by ASDA - the Association for the Scientific Development of Air Traffic Management in Europe - and hosted by the University of Bologna, the seminar provided an important platform for knowledge exchange and for strengthening links between research, industry and academia.

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