The Airspace Won't Bend for AAM
Many of today's most promising Advanced Air Mobility business plans assume they will be able to operate at or near some of the world's busiest airports. That assumption deserves scrutiny. The U.S. national airspace system already operates close to capacity at many major hubs, shaped by decades of infrastructure, procedure, and regulation built around today's commercial fleet. A new category of aircraft does not get a separate set of rules simply because it is new.
We explored this question with three practitioners who have spent much of their careers managing exactly these challenges, across air traffic management, airline operations, and the systems that keep the National Airspace System running at scale:
Tom White, a seasoned air traffic management leader with more than three decades of experience developing strategies for some of the world's most complex ATM systems, including work at NASA and as EVP at PASSUR Aerospace.
Leo Prusak, a 34-year FAA veteran and later senior associate at Booz Allen Hamilton, with deep expertise in National Airspace System operations, predictive analytics, and air traffic management decision support.
Mark Hopkins, who brings over four decades of experience in airline operations and air traffic management. He recently retired from Delta Air Lines, where he served as Director of Air Traffic Management and Collaborative Decision Making (CDM).
Their conclusion was not that AAM cannot work. In many circumstances, it can work today. The challenge is making it work at scale.
