Patent ID: 7664596

Claim:
An air traffic demand prediction system operable to predict demand within an airspace divided into sectors, said system comprising: an expanded route predictor, the expanded route predictor being operable to generate predicted two-dimensional expanded route information associated with at least one requested flight, the at least one requested flight having an associated departure location and an associated destination location; a trajectory modeler receiving the predicted two-dimensional expanded route information, the trajectory modeler being operable to generate predicted four-dimensional expanded route information associated with the at least one requested flight; a sector crossing predictor receiving the predicted four-dimensional expanded route information, the sector crossing predictor being operable to generate predicted sector crossing information associated with the at least one requested flight, the sector crossing information including times when the at least one requested flight is expected to cross from one sector of the airspace into another sector of the airspace; a departure time predictor, the departure time predictor being operable to generate predicted departure time information associated with the at least one requested flight; and a demand modeler operable to generate a demand model, the demand model including predicted time intervals associated with the at least one requested flight indicating when the at least one requested flight is expected to be present within one or more sectors of the airspace, the predicted time intervals being derived from at least the predicted sector crossing information and the predicted departure time information.