IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/jaitra/v125y2025ics0969699725000286.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Directs in European air traffic management: When and why are they actually granted?

Author

Listed:
  • Esteve, Pau
  • Zanin, Massimiliano

Abstract

Directs, i.e. instances in which an aircraft skips one or more waypoints to head straight to the next one in the flight plan, are essential instruments in the toolbox of air traffic controllers. They can be used both to reduce the flown distance and to avoid conflicts, thus directly affecting the efficiency and safety of the system. In spite of their importance, few studies have analysed how directs are used in real operational contexts. We here present an analysis of how and when directs were granted in the European airspace in 2015 and 2019. While effective at reducing delays, results indicate that directs are mostly associated with low traffic situations, hence weakly affecting delayed flights. We further estimate the real and potential savings they entail for the system, in terms of CO2 emissions, showing how they are minor with respect to the global environmental impact of aviation.

Suggested Citation

  • Esteve, Pau & Zanin, Massimiliano, 2025. "Directs in European air traffic management: When and why are they actually granted?," Journal of Air Transport Management, Elsevier, vol. 125(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jaitra:v:125:y:2025:i:c:s0969699725000286
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jairtraman.2025.102766
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0969699725000286
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jairtraman.2025.102766?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Directs; Trajectories; Air traffic control; CO2 emissions;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:jaitra:v:125:y:2025:i:c:s0969699725000286. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.journals.elsevier.com/journal-of-air-transport-management/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.