solution with the dual decomposition method converges to the global optimum. The major contribution of the proposed modeling and optimization framework is that it is about 6 times faster than a previously developed largecapacity cell transmission model. It is also shown that the proposed optimization method obtains an equally optimal solution as the large-capacity cell transmission model. In the meantime, the proposed model is capable of including bothgrounddelayandairbornedelay,whilethelarge-capacitycelltransmissionmodelincludesairbornedelayonly. The traffic forecasting capability of the new model is also examined statistically at the sector level and the national level. It is shown that the sector counts are predicted with relative errors of less than 20% for over 80% of the highaltitude sectors in the United States. Further analysis also suggests that the accuracy of the proposed model is comparable with the other two aggregate models in the literature.