The impact of the automatic terminal information service on airspace capacity and air traffic controllers workload

The Automatic Terminal Information Service (ATIS) is an important part of the organization of air traffic, which automatically provides pilots with important information about the status of the airport, runways in use, meteorological and other important data. In the absence of ATIS, air traffic controllers (ATC) must repeatedly relay this information, increasing communication demands and potentially contributing to ATC workload and operational inefficiencies. This study investigates the impact of ATIS implementation on sector capacity and controller workload. The research utilizes a year-long observational dataset from a regional airport operating without ATIS, where controller–pilot communication durations and frequencies were recorded under live operational conditions. Communication parameters, including the number of transmissions, mean message duration, and controller availability factor, were extracted and used to model sector capacity according to the Instruction of the Aeronautics Command (ICA) 100-30 methodology. The introduction of ATIS was then simulated by adjusting these parameters to reflect the automated transmission of routine information. Results show that ATIS significantly reduces the number and average duration of controller–pilot communications, leading to an increase in controller availability. Consequently, sector capacity rose by 36.03% for fixed-wing aircraft and 37.56% for rotorcraft. Statistical testing confirmed that these improvements were not attributable to random variation. The findings suggest that implementing ATIS can support more efficient communication, contribute to reducing controller workload, and may lead to a noticeable increase in sector capacity.