The US Federal Aviation Administration activated a new artificial-intelligence-driven air traffic management tool in Washington-area airspace on September 21, 2026, the first operational deployment under a 12-year, $875 million contract awarded to Air Space Intelligence in June 2026.

The system, called Strategic Management of Airspace, Routes, and Trajectories (SMART), fuses airline schedules, weather data, airport capacity and airspace restrictions into a shared forecast that updates as conditions change. FAA managers and air carriers can use that picture to agree on reroutes or adjusted departure times while aircraft remain on the ground.

Why does the FAA say it needs a new tool?

The agency argues that airlines and traffic managers currently work from different data sources on different timelines, so capacity shortfalls often surface only when aircraft are at the gate, taxiing or already airborne. SMART is designed to flag where traffic will exceed available capacity before flights depart.

Controllers still separate aircraft. SMART does not issue control instructions; it supplies decision-support information to traffic management supervisors and carriers.

What does the September 21 rollout cover?

The initial activation is limited to Washington, DC-area airspace. The FAA plans a nationwide expansion following the initial phase, but the agency has not published a milestone schedule or identified the next regions.

The contract ceiling of $875 million over 12 years makes SMART the largest single line in the FAA's recent air traffic management software procurement. Air Space Intelligence was selected in June 2026; the FAA has not detailed the competitive process.

How does SMART relate to FMDS?

SMART sits inside a broader software replacement involving Flow Management Data and Services (FMDS), which supports operations at the FAA's Air Traffic Control System Command Center. FMDS uses flight plans, schedules and aircraft position reports to estimate traffic demand against capacity constraints.

In the agency's framing, FMDS handles the arithmetic of demand versus capacity. SMART adds the coordination layer, letting carriers and traffic managers negotiate reroutes and ground-delay programs against a common forecast rather than separate planning timelines. The two systems are designed to interoperate.

What happened on the same day?

The FAA announced SMART on the same day that a communications outage disrupted flights across the northeastern United States. Officials attributed the failure to a severed fiber-optic line and a failed telecommunications switch.

The FAA did not state whether SMART was used to manage the response to the outage, or whether the announcement timing had been adjusted because of it. The agency has not disclosed how many flights were affected or which airports bore the heaviest disruption.

What outcomes does the FAA expect?

The agency expects SMART to reduce delays and controller workload, though it has not published quantified targets. Earlier reroutes and ground-delay decisions typically cut airborne holding and fuel burn; consolidated forecasts typically reduce the time controllers spend coordinating between facilities.

If the pilot produces measurable gains in Washington, the agency will have a basis to extend the tool to the high-density regions that drive the largest share of national delay minutes. The full value of the $875 million award rests on whether those gains replicate at scale once the FAA moves beyond the initial DC-area deployment.