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Posted on 11/13/2026 1:49:29 PM PST by JSM_Liberty
Pilots across the country may now receive routing and schedule recommendations from air traffic control (ATC) that were informed by an AI-powered system. The FAA told FLYING on Tuesday that its new Strategic Management of Airspace, Routes and Trajectories (SMART) platform is now active in the airspace of all of the nation’s air route traffic control centers (ARTCCs).
The agency in a statement said that following SMART’s “successful initial rollout” in the Washington, D.C., area, it has deployed the system to all 22 ARTCCs to “reduce delays, reduce fuel consumption, and improve the travel experience for the flying public.”
The cloud-based system centralizes about 200 data streams—including weather patterns, flight paths, traffic flow, and controller staffing metrics—into one platform. FAA personnel in Washington, D.C. use the information to make scheduling recommendations that are routed to air traffic controllers, who can accept or decline them. ARTCCs provide aircraft separation, traffic sequencing, routing assistance, and airspace coordination services to aircraft operating on IFR flight plans within controlled airspace, primarily during the en route phase of flight. They are divided into sectors, each handled by one or a team of controllers.
The centers manage aircraft within busy U.S. airspace such as in the New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles areas.
The FAA told FLYING that since SMART’s initial rollout September 21, it has helped reroute 180 flights. It said the system has saved an average of 10 minutes and almost 80 gallons of fuel per flight. What Is SMART?
The AI-powered, cloud-based program is designed to identify and mitigate potential conflicts in the National Airspace System (NAS) before they occur. The end goal is more optimized aircraft routing, fewer delays and cancellations, and better schedule predictability.
SMART’s initial rollout in the D.C. area was intended to manage only same-day delays. But the system is being developed to analyze the airspace days, weeks, or even months in advance.
“We can’t control the weather, but we can control the decisions that we make to keep airspace open, or only close airspace when we absolutely have to,” said FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford in August. “The primary mission of the air traffic organization is to keep things separated. None of that’s changing…It’s going to create more safe capacity to stop the traffic jams on the airports and get flights moving.”
SMART data is analyzed by a team of FAA specialists at the SMART center in D.C. The U.S. Transportation Department in September described the facility as a “state-of-the-art air traffic center” built in partnership with contractor Air Space Intelligence (ASI). In October, Politico reported that the FAA is seeking an ownership stake in ASI—an unprecedented move for the agency, but one that could give it greater control or oversight of SMART.
After validating the data, FAA specialists provide scheduling recommendations to the Air Traffic Control System Command Center (ATCSCC) in Warrenton, Virginia. The ATCSCC is responsible for using traffic management initiatives (TMIs) to manage the flow of air traffic and minimize delays. The command center then routes recommendations to ATC facilities for local leadership to consider. DOT officials and lawmakers in September urged Congress to pass legislation that would allocate $600 million to complete the rollout of SMART and the broader Flow Management Data and Services (FMDS) system which contains it. Phased Rollout
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy in August said the FAA would fully deploy SMART by spring 2027. Duffy said the agency would “slow-roll different aspects” of the system rather than deploy it all at once. He estimated the project’s cost at around $10 billion.
Airlines have publicly offered support for SMART’s deployment. According to Politico, however, they privately held concerns in the months preceding its initial rollout. The Wall Street Journal reported that the launch was smaller than what officials had previously anticipated.
Despite the FAA’s decision to introduce SMART in phases, questions remain.
In September, the National Air Traffic Controllers Association (NATCA), which represents more than 15,000 members, said it had not been “involved in the design, testing, or implementation of SMART and therefore cannot speak to its effect on the air traffic control workforce.”
The following month, more than two dozen Democratic lawmakers from both houses of Congress urged the FAA to pause its use of SMART. The lawmakers gave Bedford and Duffy until October 19 to answer a set of questions about SMART’s predeployment evaluation and ongoing oversight, as well as how stakeholders have been consulted and trained to use the system. It is unclear whether they have responded to those questions.
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I think it was going well until 1615 EST.
What could possibly go wrong with this?
And now all traffic halted in the entire country…. Ahhh coincidence.
It’s Super Intelligence! If you don’t call it Super Intelligence, you’re a traitor!
/s
And, Nat’l Weather Service nationwide radar outage.
Exactly. Good one
Aren’t they still using floppy disks?
“What could possibly go wrong with this?”
Nah,it couldn’t possibly be linked to the nationwide ground stop being reported as I type. Probably isn’t, but then again, who knows?
“And now all traffic halted in the entire country…. Ahhh coincidence.”
Yesterday, Once (all the Microsoft stuff): Happenstance
Today, Twice (aircraft grounding due to comm problem): (Ahhh) coincidence.
Tomorrow, Three times (????): enemy activity?
A “Ground Stop”...no new take-offs...landings for A/C in the air are per normal...airport tower and approach control comms reported as normal.
I hadn’t seen that yet, thanks for sharing.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) expanded its new AI air traffic management tool, SMART, nationwide earlier this week, which is now facing scrutiny following today’s U.S. nationwide ground stop. While the FAA officially expanded the system to all 22 air route traffic control centers on November 10, 2026, today’s major aviation news centers on a nationwide communications outage that grounded departing flights across the country. Federal officials stated they have not linked the AI rollout to the outage, though they have not ruled out any potential causes during their investigation.
Unlikely to be AI more likely network HW; we shall see; planes are allowed to land; new flights could possibly be allowed to take off later tonight (11pm)
Oh yeah I cant think of anything bad that could come from this....
Ping
Just started implementing use of AI this week and the air controller system goes Foxtrot. I expect more chaos with us of AI because it is extremely over-hyped. I have developed tons of expert systems for use in machining large steel items. I tried my best to keep the system as simple and clean as possible. May be that was the reason it was a huge success.
Bugs will occur exponentially more if system gets more complicated.
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