Traffic display

The present invention is directed to a traffic display for an aircraft, which includes a vertical traffic indicator. The vertical traffic indicator includes flight levels, depicted utilizing differing visual patterns to represent the current flight level as well as available and unavailable flight levels for transit. The vertical traffic indicator includes aircraft indicators positioned in relation to flight levels to indicate attitude. The aircraft indicators may also include status indicators indicating separation standards, vertical trend, intent, or whether an aircraft is a reference aircraft for an ITP. The traffic display provides clear and intuitive means of understanding the flying environment related to the performance of the ITP, increasing situational awareness and simplifying the ITP. The traffic display is specifically advantageous for performance of an ITP, but may be integrated with displays including terrain, weather, flight plan waypoints, or TCAS (Traffic Collision Avoidance System) traffic.