Get SMART: FAA Picks ASI for Predictive Air Traffic Management

Agency awards a reported 12-year, $875 million contract to startup Air Space Intelligence.

Jack Daleo

Monday, June 22, 2026 at 05:06 PM ET

Verified

Edited By:

Travis Tingle

Transportation Department officials envision the system predicting airspace conditions up to six months in advance. [Credit: Shutterstock]

Key Takeaways:

Startup Air Space Intelligence (ASI) won an $875 million, 12-year FAA contract to develop the Strategic Management of Airspace, Routes, and Trajectories (SMART) system, outperforming competitors like Palantir and Thales.
SMART, an enhancement to the FAA's Flow Management Data and Services (FMDS) platform, aims to proactively predict airspace conditions months in advance by continuously analyzing various data points.
This system is designed to shift air traffic management from reactive to proactive, significantly reducing flight delays and cancellations, improving traffic flow, and increasing overall airspace capacity.
Initial deployments of SMART are scheduled for September, focusing on high-altitude en route airspace, with the goal of eliminating thousands of delays and cancellations.

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Startup Air Space Intelligence (ASI), which claims its Flyways AI platform manages more than 40 percent of U.S. air traffic, beat out titans Palantir and Thales for an FAA contract to build a system that is capable of predicting airspace conditions months in advance.

The U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) on Monday awarded ASI a contract that Reuters reported is worth $875 million over 12 years. The contract covers the development of Strategic Management of Airspace, Routes, and Trajectories (SMART), which DOT described as an “enhancement” within the FAA’s Flow Management Data and Services (FMDS) platform. FMDS is being developed to replace the existing traffic flow management system (TFMS).