FAA launches AI airspace tool as Philadelphia telecom failure disrupts Northeast traffic

The Federal Aviation Administration began limited operations of a new airspace management system in the Washington, D.C., area on Monday, an artificial intelligence-supported tool intended to forecast congestion before it builds.

Called the Strategic Management of Airspace, Routes and Trajectories system, or SMART, it consolidates roughly 200 data feeds covering weather, flight paths, traffic flow and controller staffing. According to the FAA, the engine analyses those inputs to help specialists anticipate demand, weather and airspace constraints before they grow into larger traffic-management problems.

The system sits inside the agency's wider Flow Management Data and Services program, which the FAA intends to make the technological backbone of its Air Traffic Control System Command Center. The FAA awarded Air Space Intelligence a 12-year deal valued at up to $875 million for FMDS and SMART in June. That contract covers software to help the agency and aircraft operators align schedules, routes and capacity before departure. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy has said controllers and other aviation specialists will keep making the decisions, with SMART providing forecasts and recommendations.

Hours after SMART went live, a telecommunications failure at Philadelphia TRACON disrupted traffic across the Northeast. A primary circuit failed while a backup fiber-optic line was already out of service.

The agency used the same week to describe a broader modernization effort: replacing communications equipment, radios, radars, voice switches and controller displays. Congress has already committed billions of dollars, and the FAA and the Transportation Department are now seeking billions more. The near-simultaneous launch and outage were not connected.