Management of holding patterns: A potential ADS-B application

Holding in the national airspace system (NAS) is a necessity in the management of air traffic into the major airports in the system. The necessity follows from the desire not to waste any landing slots at the airport in the face of system uncertainties. Holding patterns maintain a ready reservoir of aircraft nearby the airport to provide a steady flow of aircraft. At the same time that this strategy provides an effective mechanism for providing pressure on the airport, it is workload intensive and inefficient in flowing aircraft uniformly to the airport. This document provides evidence of the amount of holding that is experienced for the New York airports and introduces a concept of using automatic dependent surveillance - broadcast (ADS-B) information to reduce the controller workload and increase the uniformity of the flow of aircraft out of the holding patterns. Estimates of the expected benefits are also presented as well as the next steps to be taken.