A new AI tool called SMART — short for Strategic Management of Airspace Routes and Trajectories — is going live at the Federal Aviation Administration as early as Monday, kicking off one of the most significant upgrades to US air traffic management in decades.
The system comes from Air Space Intelligence under a 12-year contract worth $875 million, part of a broader federal push to drag America's ageing aviation infrastructure into the modern era. Rather than running the skies itself, SMART acts as a prediction engine: it crunches flight schedules, weather forecasts, runway capacities and operational limits to spot congestion before it happens. In its most impressive trick, it can flag potential traffic conflicts more than 45 days out and suggest small tweaks to flight times that could prevent cascading delays.
The first phase is deliberately modest. SMART will serve as a decision-support tool during complex operational disruptions — think weather events or system outages — rather than a full rollout. Future iterations are expected to take on bigger jobs, like managing arrival intervals and mapping routes days in advance. A centralised office for the programme opens at the Department of Transportation headquarters on New Jersey Avenue in Washington, DC, and a nationwide rollout is planned by the end of 2028.
Notably, everyone involved is keen to stress that humans stay in charge. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy and the controllers' union have both emphasised that SMART advises rather than decides — no AI is going to talk a plane down.
The politics matter here too. President Trump has been pushing hard on aviation modernisation, pairing the tech investment with an expanded air traffic controller hiring programme to tackle chronic staffing shortages. FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford has been blunt about the status quo, saying current traffic management is chaotic and that the FAA needs to manage flows rather than letting airlines schedule however they like.
Not everyone is fully on board. Some airlines and industry advocates have raised questions about how the automated system will operate, particularly around competition for peak departure slots at major airports — where a few minutes of schedule flexibility can mean real money. The FAA is already in talks with carriers about aligning schedules, and the initial rollout was scaled down from what many expected. Still, Airlines for America, the trade group representing most major US carriers, has welcomed the technology, arguing it should boost safety, expand airspace capacity and cut operational inefficiency.
For travellers, the pitch is simple: fewer delays and cancellations. Anyone who has been stuck on a tarmac or rebooked twice in a day knows those delays often cascade from one airport's problem spreading across the network. A system that spots trouble weeks ahead and nudges schedules slightly could quietly save millions of hours of passenger misery. It won't transform your next trip overnight — benefits will build gradually through 2028 — but it's a rare piece of aviation news that's genuinely aimed at making your flight land on time.