TThe Department of Transportation on Monday launched an AI-enhanced air traffic control system to cut flight delays, part of a $12.5 billion federal push to replace aging infrastructure, with gradual improvement expected by summer 2027.
The new system, funded by an investment from Congress in the “One Big Beautiful Bill,” builds upon the Federal Aviation Administration’s plan to modernize air traffic control infrastructure.
For decades, the FAA has only had the funding to simply sustain old and outdated infrastructure, rather than replacing and modernizing it. A 2024 risk assessment of all 138 air traffic control systems by the Government Accountability Office deemed 37% of systems “unsustainable” and 39% as “potentially unsustainable.”
The Strategic Management of Airspace Routes and Trajectories (SMART) system monitors weather conditions, flight paths, and flight arrival and departure schedules in real time, replacing the current static charts that controllers must rely on.
DOT Secretary Sean Duffy assured reporters Monday that the new system is “not outsourcing aviation to AI,” but rather providing “predictive tools” to help controllers fix problems before they arise, preventing unnecessary ground stops and flight diversions.
“What we’ve thought through is, let’s use the best technology possible, the best predictors possible, so humans can make the best decisions possible,” Duffy said. “And when we make the best decisions possible, that means you have less delays and you have less cancelations, which means your experience in the airspace is way better.”
The AI-enhanced system, FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford said, would free up controllers “to do what we really need them to do, which is focus on the safety, maintain safety of the system and traffic separation.”
Bedford added that the FAA will immediately begin rolling out the weather programs at the three primary airports in the D.C. region – Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA), Baltimore Washington International Airport (BWI), and Dulles International Airport (IAD).
Duffy said air travelers can expect to see “gradual improvement” by summer of 2027.
Full deployment of the SMART system in airports across the country is set to be completed by the end of 2028 and will involve “upgrading telecommunications lines, installing new radios and radars, and transitioning to electronic flight strips,” according to DOT.
