Overview
- The FAA awarded Air Space Intelligence a 12‑year, $875 million contract on Monday to deliver the Flow Management Data & Services platform and the SMART system, with an initial SMART deployment targeted for fall 2026.
- SMART will use airline schedules, weather, airport capacity and airspace constraints to predict where congestion will form and to coordinate schedules and trajectories before aircraft depart.
- ASI says its Flyways AI already supports major U.S. carriers and the U.S. Air Force and that the company invested about $100 million to develop the technology it will scale for the FAA.
- Airlines have privately raised concerns about how the FAA will resolve conflicts over scarce runway and airspace slots and whether the fall 2026 rollout timeline is achievable.
- The award follows years of capacity pressure — including required flight cuts at Chicago O'Hare and extended limits in the New York area — and it signals a move by the FAA to adopt commercial AI vendors to modernize an aging national air-traffic system funded in part by Congress.