Air traffic management
Air traffic management is a rich domain of well-formulated optimisation and machine learning problems, many of which are computationally complex — difficult to evaluate exactly, often requiring unfeasibly long spans of time even with powerful classical computers. Quantum computing offers the prospect of solving certain classes of these problems exactly, or finding better approximate solutions, in reasonable time.
Optimisation problems in ATM
ATM operations involve a wide range of combinatorial optimisation challenges where quantum computing may provide advantages:
- Dynamic airspace configuration and sectorisation — partitioning airspace into sectors to balance controller workload while respecting operational constraints. Can be modelled as graph partitioning or clustering.
- Traffic flow management and flight scheduling — assigning departure slots, rerouting flights, and balancing demand against capacity across the network.
- 4D trajectory planning and conflict resolution — determining optimal paths through space and time while maintaining safe separation between aircraft.
- Gate assignment and flight sequencing — allocating airport resources to minimise taxi times and maximise throughput.
- Arrival and departure management — sequencing aircraft for efficient runway use while respecting noise, fuel, and time constraints.
UTM and UAM challenges
Emerging aviation domains introduce new classes of computationally hard problems:
- Urban Air Mobility route optimisation in high-density, low-altitude airspace
- Drone swarm coordination and collision avoidance at scale
- Real-time deconfliction in very-low-level airspace shared by diverse operators
- Secure communications infrastructure for autonomous UAS operations
AI/ML in ATM
Machine learning is increasingly used in ATM for predictive analytics, anomaly detection, and decision support. Training these models — particularly deep learning architectures on large traffic datasets — is computationally intensive. Quantum machine learning may accelerate pattern recognition and kernel evaluation, though this remains an active research area.
Security and cryptography
ATM systems are, in part, critical national and international infrastructure. Current cryptographic algorithms used in ground-ground and air-ground communications will become vulnerable to quantum-capable attackers. JANUS addresses this challenge through its post-quantum cryptography work stream, producing a migration roadmap aligned with NIST standards and European regulatory frameworks.