Sociomeeting: Large-scale analysis of trajectory interaction networks in Europe

A challenging and open topic in air traffic management is the understanding of how aircraft interact between them to avoid separation losses, consequently creating downstream effects that go well beyond single pairs. In this talk, a concise modelling technique of such interactions and of their propagations, based on complex network representations of the same will be presented. By relying on some basic hypotheses, it will be shown how this method can efficiently scale and be used to represent all flights crossing the European airspace in one day. This methodology then will be used to study the resulting structures in three case studies: the normal dynamics in Europe, the impact of COVID-19 on it. Among other results, it will be shown how these structures are a function of the main traffic flows, but not of the individual flights, and are hence an emergent property of the system; how COVID-19 impacted traffic beyond what expected from a simple reduction in traffic. It will be further discussed open questions and possible venues for future research.