U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean P. Duffy and Federal Aviation Administrator (FAA) Bryan Bedford today unveiled the Strategic Management of Airspace, Routes and Trajectories (SMART) – a cutting-edge tool that centralizes 200 data streams – including weather patterns, flight paths, traffic flow, and controller staffing metrics – into one platform. SMART’s AI-supported engine then synthesizes all this data to provide a comprehensive visualization of where planes are going, how much traffic the system can handle, and where congestion or weather could cause challenges.
Aviation specialists can use the platform to see what conditions will be in the future and make recommendations to fix the problems before they arise.
Key benefits of SMART include:
- Fewer delays & cancellations: Flyers will spend less time waiting on the tarmac, circling above their arrival airport, or dealing with diversions.
- Optimized airspace: Unlocks more capacity with more efficient routing around bad weather and congestion.
- More predictable operations: Preventing disruptions before they happen will reduce stress on controllers, let them focus on their more mission – safety.
- Lower ticket prices: When airlines waste less fuel, reduce staff overtime, and have more planes arrive on time, operating costs fall. That means cost savings for consumers.
“Thanks to President Trump’s leadership, we are already making remarkable progress on building a brand new air traffic control system. But to really improve the flying experience for the American people, we needed to build a 21st century scheduling tool like SMART,” said U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean P. Duffy. “By fundamentally reshaping how we manage our airspace and preventing problems before they happen, SMART will slash those frustrating delays, reduce stress on air traffic controllers, and lower travel prices. The Trump Administration is committed to making flying hassle-free and affordable again.”
How it works:
At the beginning of each day, thousands of scheduled flights face built-in delays because demand for airspace can exceed an airport’s capacity. When too many flights are scheduled to use the same airspace at the same time, congestion builds and delays follow. Weather can further reduce available airspace capacity, forcing the FAA to reroute flights or shutdown large portions of the airspace. The result is a system that too often has to react to disruptions as they happen and unnecessary delays for passengers.
SMART fixes this by moving the FAA from a reactive approach to a predictive one. Instead of waiting for congestion to build, SMART uses data to help the FAA anticipate demand, weather and airspace constraints and plan hours, days and even weeks ahead.
The FAA began using SMART in a limited mode today in the airspace around Washington, D.C. and plans to gradually expand it to other parts of the country. SMART cannot be used to replace the critical role air traffic controllers play or take over control of an aircraft. All of SMART’s recommendations are reviewed by FAA staff, and local leadership at air traffic control facilities can choose to accept or pass on these scheduling suggestions…
