The FAA has introduced a new AI tool to help streamline air traffic control.
Called Strategic Management of Airspace, Routes and Trajectories (SMART), the new tool centralizes 200 data streams, including weather patterns, flight paths, traffic flow, and controller staffing metrics into one platform. SMART’s AI-supported engine then synthesizes the data to provide a comprehensive visualization of where planes are going, how much traffic the system can handle, and where congestion or weather could cause challenges, FAA officials explain.
“Aviation specialists can use the platform to see what conditions will be in the future and make recommendations to fix the problems before they arise,” agency officials added.
According to FAA officials, benefits of SMART include:
- Fewer delays and cancellations: Flyers will spend less time waiting on the tarmac, circling above their arrival airport, or dealing with diversions.
- Optimized airspace: Unlocks more capacity with more efficient routing around bad weather and congestion.
- More predictable operations: Preventing disruptions before they happen will reduce stress on controllers, letting them focus on safety.
How it works
At the beginning of each day, thousands of scheduled flights face built-in delays because demand for airspace can exceed an airport’s capacity. When too many flights are scheduled to use the same airspace at the same time, congestion builds and delays follow. Weather can further reduce available airspace capacity, forcing the FAA to reroute flights or shut down large portions of the airspace. The result is a system that too often has to react to disruptions and unnecessary delays as they happen.
SMART fixes this by moving the FAA from a reactive approach to a predictive one, agency officials say. Instead of waiting for congestion to build, SMART uses data to help the FAA anticipate demand, weather, and airspace constraints and plan hours, days, and even weeks ahead.
The FAA began using SMART in a limited mode Sept. 21, 2026, in the airspace around Washington, D.C., and plans to gradually expand it to other parts of the country.
“SMART cannot be used to replace the critical role air traffic controllers play or take over control of an aircraft,” FAA officials say. “All of SMART’s recommendations are reviewed by FAA staff, and local leadership at air traffic control facilities can choose to accept or pass on these scheduling suggestions.”
The FAA is partnering with Air Space Intelligence (ASI) to build a new air traffic center to facilitate a staged rollout of SMART over the next few months, starting in the National Capital Region.
For more information: Transportation.gov
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