US FAA rolls out AI tool to help reduce flight delays

The FAA has begun a limited rollout of a new AI-driven air traffic management system called SMART, short for Strategic Management of Airspace, Routes, and Trajectories. The pilot program kicked off September 21, 2026, focused on the three major airports serving the Washington, D.C. area: Reagan National, Dulles, and Baltimore-Washington International. What SMART actually does SMART analyzes airline schedules, weather forecasts, and airport capacity constraints to identify traffic conflicts before they happen, sometimes days in advance. The goal is to give air traffic controllers a heads-up early enough to reroute flights or adjust schedules proactively, rather than scrambling reactively once a storm or a runway closure starts a domino effect across the entire system. SMART is a decision-support tool, not an autopilot for the National Airspace System. Human controllers remain in charge. The AI surfaces recommendations; the controllers decide what to do with them. SMART does not handle aircraft separation, the moment-to-moment job of keeping planes at safe distances from each other. The tool operates at a higher, more strategic level, focused on system-wide flow management rather tha...