Overview
- Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said the FAA is developing SMART, a centralized cloud system that uses AI to predict traffic flows and suggest small departure time changes weeks in advance.
- Palantir, Thales SA, and Airspace Intelligence are competing to build the software, and Palantir said it holds a contract to provide a data analytics tool for the effort.
- Duffy estimated the software phase at about $12 billion and said the FAA needs more money beyond the $12.5 billion Congress already approved for broader upgrades.
- Union leader Nick Daniels of NATCA said SMART is for preplanning, with human controllers keeping responsibility for separating aircraft and safeguarding passengers.
- Commentary has raised reliability concerns about AI errors, even as officials describe a roughly two‑and‑a‑half‑year path to deploy the tools if development stays on track.