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Cooperation has been identified as an essential requirement for the strategic performance of air transport organisations. From an academic perspective, the debate on theory and practice of such cooperation mainly centres on questions regarding aspects of the increasingly strategic alliances among airlines. Recent developments in the air navigation service (ANS) industry, point towards a new organisational philosophy for ANS provision, which would incorporate the concept of international cooperation. This research shifts the focus and expands the growing body of knowledge in air transport cooperation, by exploring comprehensively, from ~a strategic management perspective, the area of cooperation involving air-navigation service providers (ANSPS), which potentially could improve service provision and reduce costs -in the future. The research presented in this thesis follows a conceptual path, beginning with, an analysis of air transport cooperation literature in great detail, to extract lessons applicable for ANSPS in their quest to cooperate. The ANS business model and its a international regulatory environment are .examined comprehensively to get an overview of how these are evolving and discover the underlying traits. From a empirical perspective, findings of two consecutive questionnaire surveys performed on ANSPs are presented, to develop insights into and understanding of, the current status and the future direction of cooperation in the key areas of ANS and cooperation between ANSPs and their industry partners. Having identified the future direction of cooperation, together with a critical review of the associated drivers and barriers to cooperation, enables the research, to develop solution methods in the form of recommendations to the stakeholders on how to enhance cooperation in ANS. The findings indicate conclusively that future progress is dependent on the scale and dynamics of the ANS industry, including the strategies ANSPs employ to interact with the regulatory and public bodies. Furthermore, cooperation to date has been driven by operational requirements to improve operational efficiency. Strategic cooperation does not come naturally° but is now being driven by commercialisation objectives -and is supported in 'Europe by changes in the regulatory framework. Where cooperation is likely to significantly impact the core business there are still significant issues outside the control of the ANSPS, and which require intervention from political and other stakeholders to collectively devise a outcome. This research highlights that standardisation is a key strategic issue for the industry as' more benefits and intense' cooperation can be expected, after standardisation is achieved in procedures, technology, air traffic control training content and safety management system product. To investigate another interesting aspect of this research, the European air traffic management (ATM) was examined in order to compare it with the South East (SE) Asia ATM situation. To support the point, that cross border rationalisation initiatives require a related business case as a complementary planning tool to build an economic argument against political barriers, this research developed a comprehensive sample business case methodology incorporating a quantitative cost benefit analysis which was used to validate the recommendation that SE Asian ANSPS consolidate the entire regions CNS infrastructure into a Regional CNS Organisation.

Increasing travel demand sees projections of 11.5 million flights in Europe annually by 2016. The current system is not capable of managing these increases, introducing the need for a redevelopment initiative, the Single Sky, to reduce environmental impact, improve efficiency and manage the increased capacity with even better safety. This is a challenging goal as these systems are characteristically complex arising from numerous interacting objects whose behaviour is affected by history or feedback in an open system resulting in emergent, ordered and disordered behaviour through the structure. It is difficult to understand the system behaviour, which is key to modifying, developing and implementing the desired configurations effectively. Ascertaining the behaviour of such systems requires an understanding of the coupling and interdependencies on a system wide scale, which is not available in the traditional approaches to ATM system analysis. This research addresses the need by developing a simple, inexpensive, non data intensive, qualitative analysis for identifying these relationships and interdependencies through a technique of invoking a change in the system architecture and measuring the deviation experienced by the other elements, with the deviation referred to as impact. An agent based modelling approach was identified as the most suitable and the method was therefore implemented in an agent based environment. The model was verified in a system of 21 airports from the UK and Ireland and a user defined number of flights with at least a departure or arrival airport within the system. Critical review and validation of the model is performed using a combination of scenarios comprising real world events. System analysis and changes in protocol were used to identify phenomenon such as impact propagation and absorption. The combination of impact analysis, approach and the model is shown to provide a simple means for ascertaining the relationships and interdependencies as impact propagates through the system due to aircraft moving through the operational hierarchy. The research identifies the applicability of the technique toward the analysis of other complex systems including ecosystems and financial markets.

Air Traffic Controllers (ATCOs) are responsible for the safety and efficiency of all air traffic. It is essential that controllers maintain a consistently high standard of human performance in order to maintain flight safety. Knowledge of human factor influences on controller performance is critical to understand and mitigate threats to performance. Previous research has largely focused on the association between single factors and performance, which has resulted in a comprehensive understanding of single factor influences. In current control environments however, the residual threats for incidents often result from the interaction of multiple human factors and the resulting cumulative impact on performance. This thesis describes a set of studies that investigate the relationship between multiple, co-occurring factors, and the association with human performance. Findings contribute further understanding of multifactor combinations and associations with human performance, and provide novel and practical recommendations for the mitigation of multifactor influences on controller performance. A literature review, incident report analysis and survey of air traffic professionals confirmed that a majority of research approaches were fundamentally single-factor in nature, which is out of step with real air traffic management (ATM) contexts. In addition, findings confirmed that multiple factors co-occur in an air traffic control (ATC) environment, and are associated with controller performance. An off-line experiment using students as participants investigated the relationship between a set of human factors and the association with performance. Results indicate that several factors known to be associated with controller performance do co-vary and factors may interact to produce a cumulative Influence on performance. An interview study with en-route controllers contributed to an understanding of mitigation strategies of multifactor influences. The research presented in this thesis has contributed findings that have both theoretical and practical implications. This research has addressed long-standing gaps within human performance literature and contributed new understanding to the complex field of human performance in air traffic control. Findings suggest that factors do co-occur in ATC, and interact to negatively influence performance, pushing controllers to the edge of performance. This research argues for a more ecologically valid investigation of real-world systems using multiple factors rather than the traditional one or two-factor paradigms. In addition, this research investigation has contributed novel understanding of mechanisms which may mitigate multifactor influences and has developed practical recommendations for aviation personnel that may be used to support performance, thereby preventing performance decline, with important implications for maintaining and improving safety within the ATC domain.