{"slug": "us-faa-rolls-out-ai-tool-to-help-reduce-flight-delays", "title": "US FAA rolls out AI tool to help reduce flight delays", "summary": "The FAA began a limited rollout of an AI-driven air traffic management system called SMART on September 21, 2026, covering Reagan National, Dulles, and Baltimore-Washington International airports. The FAA awarded the contract to build and operate SMART in June 2026 to Boston-based Air Space Intelligence, valued at up to $875 million over 12 years, with a nationwide rollout targeted by 2028. SMART analyzes airline schedules, weather forecasts, and airport capacity constraints to flag traffic conflicts days in advance, but remains a decision-support tool with human controllers retaining authority and no role in aircraft separation.", "body_md": "Photo: Tara Winstead / Pexels\n\n# US FAA rolls out AI tool to help reduce flight delays\n\nA new decision-support platform called SMART will analyze weather, schedules, and airport capacity to predict and prevent cascading delays across the national airspace.\n\nThe FAA has begun a limited rollout of a new AI-driven air traffic management system called SMART, short for Strategic Management of Airspace, Routes, and Trajectories. The pilot program kicked off September 21, 2026, focused on the three major airports serving the Washington, D.C. area: Reagan National, Dulles, and Baltimore-Washington International.\n\n## What SMART actually does\n\nSMART analyzes airline schedules, weather forecasts, and airport capacity constraints to identify traffic conflicts before they happen, sometimes days in advance. The goal is to give air traffic controllers a heads-up early enough to reroute flights or adjust schedules proactively, rather than scrambling reactively once a storm or a runway closure starts a domino effect across the entire system.\n\nSMART is a decision-support tool, not an autopilot for the National Airspace System. Human controllers remain in charge. The AI surfaces recommendations; the controllers decide what to do with them. SMART does not handle aircraft separation, the moment-to-moment job of keeping planes at safe distances from each other. The tool operates at a higher, more strategic level, focused on system-wide flow management rather than individual flight paths.\n\nThe FAA awarded the contract to build and operate the SMART platform in June 2026 to Air Space Intelligence, a Boston-based company. The deal is valued at up to $875 million over 12 years. The contract also covers a data infrastructure layer called [Flow](https://cryptobriefing.com/markets/flow/) Management Data and Services, which will serve as the backbone feeding real-time information into the AI.\n\n## Why D.C. and why now\n\nThe FAA is targeting a nationwide rollout by 2028. SMART is one piece of a larger modernization architecture that also includes initiatives like the Future En Route Network System and the Common Automation Platform.\n\n### AI, tech, and the markets they move—in one daily briefing.\n\nDaily. Free. Join 34,000+ readers across crypto, finance, and policy.\n\nThe FAA secured backing from the National Air Traffic Controllers Association and United Airlines. NATCA represents the controllers who will actually use SMART day to day. United’s endorsement signals that at least one major carrier sees commercial upside in the tool.\n\n## The challenges ahead\n\nIntegrating a new AI system into an air traffic control environment means training controllers to interpret its outputs, building trust in its recommendations, and handling edge cases where the AI and human judgment diverge. SMART’s predictions are only as good as the inputs it receives, and the FMDS data backbone is designed to address historically fragmented air traffic data across different systems and agencies.\n\nNationwide deployment by 2028 will require scaling the system from three airports in one metro area to hundreds of facilities across the country, including smaller regional airports with very different traffic patterns and operational profiles.\n\n**Disclosure:** This article was edited by Editorial Team. For more information on how we create and review content, see our\n\n[Editorial Policy](https://cryptobriefing.com/editorial-policy/).", "url": "https://wpnews.pro/news/us-faa-rolls-out-ai-tool-to-help-reduce-flight-delays", "canonical_source": "https://cryptobriefing.com/faa-ai-tool-smart-flight-delays/", "published_at": "2026-09-21 17:14:55+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-09-21 17:22:27.208147+00:00", "lang": "en", "topics": ["artificial-intelligence", "ai-products", "ai-infrastructure"], "entities": ["FAA", "SMART", "Air Space Intelligence", "Reagan National Airport", "Dulles International Airport", "Baltimore-Washington International Airport", "National Air Traffic Controllers Association", "United Airlines"], "alternates": {"html": "https://wpnews.pro/news/us-faa-rolls-out-ai-tool-to-help-reduce-flight-delays", "markdown": "https://wpnews.pro/news/us-faa-rolls-out-ai-tool-to-help-reduce-flight-delays.md", "text": "https://wpnews.pro/news/us-faa-rolls-out-ai-tool-to-help-reduce-flight-delays.txt", "jsonld": "https://wpnews.pro/news/us-faa-rolls-out-ai-tool-to-help-reduce-flight-delays.jsonld"}}