The Federal Aviation Administration's planned deployment of an artificial intelligence system in the Washington, D.C., area as early as Monday is best read as an attempt to extend the reach of an overstretched air-traffic workforce. The system, called Strategic Management of Airspace, Routes, and Trajectories, or SMART, is designed to identify potential disruption earlier, giving the agency and airlines more scope to adjust before delays and cancellations spread through the network.
SMART was built by Air Space Intelligence, a Boston startup that won a contract worth $875 million over 12 years. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy and FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford announced the contract on June 22, 2026. Air Space Intelligence beat Palantir Technologies and Thales for the work, which also includes a companion system.
The software takes in airline schedules, weather forecasts, airport capacity data and airspace conditions. Its purpose is to help the FAA and airlines cut delays and cancellations, including by finding alternative flight routes when disruption affects air traffic.
The FAA currently has a planning window of about 15 minutes for spotting conflicts. SMART is intended to expand that operational window to two hours. Duffy has also said the tools could flag conflicts as far as 45 days ahead, allowing controllers to address potential delays before they occur.
Its performance in live operations remains unknown. The FAA has not set out how SMART's success or failure will be measured, how controllers will use its predictions, or the timetable and scale of any deployment beyond the Washington area. It is also unclear whether the system will enter service on Monday or whether that schedule will change.
The programme arrives as the FAA is short roughly 3,000 certified controllers against its own staffing target. The agency's shortage is its worst in more than two decades. At the same time, 37% of the FAA's 138 air traffic control systems are classified as unsustainable, underscoring the ageing infrastructure behind the broader modernisation effort.
Duffy has presented artificial intelligence as support for controllers rather than a substitute for them. “AI is a tool, but we do not replace humans in how we manage the airspace,” he told CBS News. Nick Daniels, the chief of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association, has likewise said the upgrades are not competition for the controller workforce.
The Washington launch is one part of a wider overhaul whose completion the Department of Transportation aims to achieve by the end of 2028. The department has already allocated $12.5 billion for wider infrastructure upgrades. Duffy has also asked Congress for $6 billion to $10 billion to integrate AI into the air traffic control system.
Funding remains unresolved. A government watchdog identified a $574 million funding shortfall in the broader air traffic control overhaul this month. Congress has yet to decide whether to approve the additional $6 billion to $10 billion request, and the brief does not say how the shortfall will be covered.
The contract also covers a companion system, Flow Management Data and Services, intended to replace a legacy system. Details of that system have not been provided. For SMART, the central test will be whether earlier forecasts translate into fewer disruptions while leaving controllers responsible for managing the airspace.
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