A framework for collaborative air traffic flow management minimizing costs for airspace users: Enabling trajectory options and flexible pre-tactical delay management

•An innovative collaborative air traffic flow management framework is introduced in the scope of the future trajectory based operations paradigm.•An interactive trajectory design process is proposed between the airspace users and the air traffic flow management authority aligned with the collaborative decision-making mechanisms.•An integrated linear optimization model is presented, which incorporates all the possible options resulted from the previous interactive trajectory design process.•Real-world operational data are collected and processed in a case study to provide a realistic assessment of the framework for a typical operational day.