The Federal Aviation Administration has contracted Air Space Intelligence under an $875 million agreement spanning 12 years to install a new flight-management system intended to improve how U.S. flights are scheduled and operated.
The program, named Strategic Management of Airspace, Routes, and Trajectories (SMART), will aggregate and analyze multiple data streams - including airline schedules, weather, airport capacity, airspace conditions and other operational constraints - to forecast traffic flows and surface potential conflicts ahead of time. According to the FAA, the platform will help ensure sufficient capacity for expected air traffic demand and provide managers with data to guide flight operations.
In its description of the system, the FAA said SMART will work to prevent significant congestion and delays "by strategically coordinating schedules and trajectories before aircraft depart." The aim is to use pre-departure coordination to avoid the kinds of bottlenecks that have driven recent flight reductions and disruptions.
Industry discussions over the program have been ongoing for months. Airlines have engaged with the FAA but, privately, have expressed concerns about how the agency will make trade-offs when scheduling conflicts arise and whether the system can be implemented as soon as this fall.
The award comes as the FAA contends with growing demand for air travel amid infrastructure strains. The agency has faced persistent issues including runway construction, severe weather, and a shortfall in air traffic controllers. In April, the FAA ordered airlines at Chicago O'Hare to cut 300 daily flights because of congestion concerns and recently extended flight cuts at Newark and other New York-area airports.
Last year, Congress allocated $12.5 billion to modernize aging technology and reinforce understaffed air traffic control towers. The U.S. Department of Transportation has requested an additional $10 billion for continued improvements to the air transportation system.
Air Space Intelligence's chief executive, Phillip Buckendorf, described the technology as "commercially proven technology already helping everyone from major airlines to the broader aviation community operate more efficiently and predictably." The company will be responsible for building and operating the SMART platform under the terms of the contract.
U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said the program "will fundamentally reshape how the airspace is managed - slashing thousands of delays and cancellations in the process." The industry trade group Airlines for America welcomed the initiative, saying it will "make air traffic more efficient and timely while maintaining our gold standard of safety." The group added the system will provide carriers with "more efficient routings and more predictable information about system capacity in order to balance capacity and demand."
Implementation questions remain, including how the FAA will balance competing airline schedules when conflicts are forecast and whether the initial deployment timeline can meet expectations. The FAA and Air Space Intelligence will need to translate the platform's predictive analytics into operational procedures acceptable to carriers and consistent with safety standards.