This book argues that Air Traffic Management (ATM) is a complex socio-technical system that classical approaches fail to adequately address, advocating for the adoption of Complexity Science as a superior analytical framework. The author posits that ambitious ATM performance improvement programs have historically fallen short because they focused on local technological solutions rather than understanding the inherent complexity of the system. By embracing Complexity Science, the book aims to provide a new lens through which to analyze and model future ATM operations, essential for accommodating long-term air traffic growth within existing infrastructure.

The book positions Complexity Science as an essential tool for understanding and improving Air Traffic Management, a field often constrained by traditional engineering and human factors approaches. It suggests that past performance improvement programs have underdelivered due to an insufficient grasp of the system's inherent complexity. The work aims to bridge this gap by demonstrating the applicability of complexity paradigms to future ATM operations, particularly in light of projected air traffic growth.