The Federal Aviation Administration has contracted Air Space Intelligence for $875 million to build a new flight-scheduling and management system intended to reshape how U.S. air traffic is coordinated over the next 12 years.
The program, known as Strategic Management of Airspace, Routes, and Trajectories or SMART, is designed to ensure air traffic capacity aligns with demand and to supply operators with data to manage flights more predictably. The FAA said the platform will use multiple data inputs - including airline schedules, weather, airport capacity, airspace conditions and operational constraints - to forecast traffic flows and identify potential conflicts in advance, allowing schedules and trajectories to be coordinated before aircraft depart.
According to the FAA, the goal of SMART is to prevent acute congestion and significant delays by coordinating flights and trajectories strategically rather than reacting after problems materialize.
Airlines have been in dialogue with the FAA about the program for months. Carriers have privately raised concerns about how the agency will determine which flights should be moved when scheduling conflicts arise, and whether the system can be implemented as early as this fall.
The initiative comes as the FAA continues to grapple with long-standing congestion pressures. Rising demand, runway construction projects, severe weather and a shortage of air traffic controllers have strained operations. In April the agency ordered airlines at Chicago O'Hare to cut 300 daily flights, citing congestion. Last week the FAA extended flight reductions at Newark and other New York-area airports.
Last year, Congress allocated $12.5 billion to replace outdated technology and to bolster understaffed air traffic control towers. The U.S. Department of Transportation has requested an additional $10 billion to continue modernization efforts.
Air Space Intelligence CEO Phillip Buckendorf said the SMART system will rely on "commercially proven technology already helping everyone from major airlines to the broader aviation community operate more efficiently and predictably."
U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy emphasized the need for change in how flights are managed, saying "we must change how flights are managed" and that the system "will fundamentally reshape how the airspace is managed - slashing thousands of delays and cancellations in the process."
Airlines for America, the primary industry trade group, described the program as a means to "make air traffic more efficient and timely while maintaining our gold standard of safety." The group added that SMART will give carriers more efficient routings and clearer information on system capacity to better match demand and capacity.
The FAA contract represents a major procurement aimed at modernizing air traffic management through a centralized, data-driven approach. Implementation timing, operational rules for resolving conflicts and the ability to scale the system across busy hubs remain points of focus for carriers and regulators.