The FAA will pilot a new AI-driven air traffic management tool at three Washington-Baltimore region airports — BWI Thurgood Marshall, Dulles International, and Reagan National — before deploying it nationwide.

Announced September 23, 2026, the Strategic Management of Airspace, Routes and Trajectories (SMART) system gives air traffic coordinators a consolidated real-time and predictive view of weather, runway congestion, and flight diversions. The pilot sits within the FAA's $12.5 billion "Modern Skies" infrastructure overhaul of U.S. air traffic control hardware, software, and supporting systems.

FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford said SMART will sharpen decision-making around extreme weather, cut ground stops, and save travelers time. "We are not outsourcing aviation to AI," Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said at a Monday demonstration. "It's always going to be a human that manages the airspace in [the United States of] America."

What does the SMART tool actually do?

SMART does not push commands directly to aircraft. Instead, it prompts airspace managers with suggested flight-path or speed adjustments — for example, when several aircraft converge on one airport at the same time. Managers then relay those suggestions to pilots.

The system pulls together data that previously sat across separate displays, letting coordinators see runway and en-route conditions at once. That centralization matters most during convective weather, when diversions cascade across multiple airports in a single region.

Which airports and carriers are involved in the pilot?

The three pilot sites span two airport authorities:

• BWI Thurgood Marshall — operated by the Maryland Aviation Administration; Southwest Airlines is the largest carrier
• Dulles International — operated by the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority
• Reagan National — operated by the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority; site of the January 2025 midair collision

Southwest CEO Bob Jordan endorsed the rollout in a news release, calling the system "encouraged" and saying SMART "has the real potential to more efficiently manage the nation's airspace and reduce flight delays and cancellations for our customers."

The Maryland Aviation Administration referred questions to the FAA. A Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority representative did not respond to a request for comment.

Why is the FAA under pressure to modernize?

Two recent events sharpened the urgency behind the rollout:

• A January 2025 midair collision between an Army Black Hawk helicopter and an American Airlines regional jet approaching Reagan National killed 67 people, exposing brittle legacy systems.
• A late-2025 federal government shutdown forced air traffic controllers to work without pay, triggering widespread flight reductions as staff called in sick.

SMART is the most visible AI product inside Modern Skies so far. It will compete for attention with broader hardware replacements — new radar, updated controller workstations, modernized towers — that the $12.5 billion program funds.

What could change for airlines and travelers?

For operators, fewer ground stops translate into better dispatch reliability and lower irregular-operations costs. Smarter re-routing also trims fuel burn when weather forces diversions.

For passengers, the practical effect is shorter tarmac holds and fewer cancellations during convective weather, particularly in the congested Northeast airspace where BWI, Dulles, and Reagan sit alongside Philadelphia, Newark, and JFK.

Duffy warned that travelers should expect a slow rollout, with "gradual improvements" to travel times arriving by next summer. The agency has not published a nationwide deployment schedule for SMART.

Separate from the FAA action, Maryland Governor Wes Moore this week outlined new state-level proposals to regulate artificial intelligence — a sign of the political headwinds facing federal AI adoption across sectors.