The Federal Aviation Administration will begin using a new artificial intelligence platform that aims to give air traffic controllers earlier warnings about traffic build-ups and potential route conflicts. The system, called SMART, is being procured for $875 million spread over a 12-year contract and will arrive in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area first, with broader regional rollouts to follow.
SMART, which stands for Strategic Management of Airspace, Routes, and Trajectories, is built by a company named Air Space Intelligence. The FAA says the tool is a cloud-hosted platform intended to work alongside the agency’s existing traffic-management infrastructure. It combines airline schedules, weather forecasts, airport throughput and airspace conditions, and other operational constraints to produce predictions of traffic flows and highlight where conflicts may emerge so controllers can intervene sooner.
The agency has been confronting a nationwide shortage of certified controllers for years, and the new platform is the latest part of a multi-pronged response. Earlier this year the FAA outlined a hiring strategy intended to address staffing gaps, and the SMART purchase sits alongside a broader push to modernize legacy air traffic systems. The procurement signals a shift toward greater automation in traffic management, while keeping human controllers responsible for final decisions.
For the FAA, the immediate aim is to reduce the operational friction that contributes to delays and reroutes, by surfacing likely problems before they materialize. For controllers, the platform promises a different workflow: more predictive information feeding decisions that today rely heavily on live monitoring and experience. The agency will monitor SMART’s performance during the initial deployment and expand the platform to other regions if it delivers the expected efficiency and safety benefits.
The contract binds the government and Air Space Intelligence for a dozen years of development, integration and operation. How effectively the platform integrates with existing systems, and whether it materially eases pressure on controller staffing or reduces disruptions, will determine whether this becomes a stepping stone toward wider automation in U.S. airspace management.
