WASHINGTON, DC — The initial rollout covers Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, Dulles International Airport, and Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport. The Federal Aviation Administration states that the SMART system will be deployed on Monday, September 21, 2026, in the Washington, D.C. area under an $875 million contract with Air Space Intelligence.

The SMART system uses AI models to predict air traffic flows and identify potential conflicts based on airline schedules, weather, airport capacity, and airspace conditions. The SMART system is designed to analyze scheduling and congestion data over a month in advance to predict vulnerabilities to delays.

The initial phase of the SMART rollout will offer alternatives to avoid only same-day delays. The goals of SMART include reducing aircraft fuel burn, improving on-time performance for flights, and speeding up recovery from weather and air traffic congestion events.

Transportation Department officials stated that the SMART system will not replace human operators or direct any changes to flight routes, but merely offer recommendations that controllers can choose to heed or ignore. FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford stated that a 90-day testing period will precede any wider rollout of the SMART tool.

The airline industry was confused for weeks about the Federal Aviation Administration’s plans to deploy the SMART AI tool. Anonymous airline officials told reporters that their concerns about SMART eased after the FAA said the tool would not change any procedures.

Philip Mann, principal consultant at Vector Strategic Consulting LLC, said the decision to launch SMART in limited scope before going nationwide is the “right call.” Mann previously worked at the FAA in multiple roles for 17 years. Mann wrote in an email, "SMART’s risk was never any single prediction—it is a national-scale system with AI components carrying more unknowns than anything the FAA has fielded." He added, "Every cut in scope shrinks the unknowns."

Why It Matters

Washington’s congested airspace drew particular scrutiny following a January 2025 midair collision between a commercial jet and an Army Black Hawk helicopter that killed 67 people. The National Transportation Safety Board placed the blame for certain failures leading up to the January 2025 crash on the Federal Aviation Administration.

Timeline

The Federal Aviation Administration awarded the contract to develop SMART to Air Space Intelligence, a Boston-based software company, in June 2026.

The SMART system is scheduled to debut for three major airports in the Washington, DC area on Monday, September 21, 2026.

What's New

FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford asked Congress for billions more dollars to fully modernize air traffic control systems at a congressional hearing. Bedford argued that new technologies are needed to "supercharge our ability to safely grow traffic and reduce the workload and strain on our controllers."

FAA spokesperson Hannah Walden said in a statement, "We’re excited to launch SMART and take another major step toward improving air travel for the American people."

FAA spokesperson Hannah Walden said in a statement that SMART is "a new tool that will fundamentally change the way we manage our skies." Federal Aviation Administration is U.S. government agency regulating civil aviation.

How Sources Differ

The Federal Aviation Administration stated that the SMART AI tool will not change any procedures for air traffic controllers or airlines. The Federal Aviation Administration plans a nationwide rollout of SMART covering 29 million square miles of US national airspace by 2028.