FAA Developing ATC Tech to Predict the Future

Strategic Management of Airspace Routing Trajectories (SMART) system could shift air traffic control from reactive to predictive.

Jack Daleo

Tuesday, April 21, 2026 at 05:20 PM ET

Verified

Edited By:

Travis Tingle

FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford (left) and U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy speak at the inaugural Modern Skies Summit in Washington, D.C. [Jack Daleo/FLYING]

Key Takeaways:

The FAA is developing SMART (Strategic Management of Airspace Routing Trajectories), an AI-based software designed to predict airspace conditions like weather and traffic weeks or months in advance.
SMART's primary goal is to reduce flight delays, cancellations, and controller workload by enabling strategic pre-planning of air traffic, rather than performing real-time aircraft separation.
This initiative is a core component of the FAA's broader airspace modernization efforts, which also include significant infrastructure upgrades (BNATCS) and workforce growth.
Despite progress in other areas of modernization, the deployment of SMART faces funding challenges, with the Transportation Secretary requesting additional congressional allocations.

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FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford, U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, and other federal and industry stakeholders on Tuesday shed new light on a planned air traffic control (ATC) software that could predict airspace conditions days, weeks, or even months in advance.

Duffy first alluded to the AI-based software, called SMART (Strategic Management of Airspace Routing Trajectories), on Friday. According to Frank Matus, director of uncrewed aircraft system (UAS) integration for Thales, the FAA’s vision is to predict weather, traffic, and other conditions “somewhere between six months and up to hours before operation.”