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).
Per ASI CEO Phillip Buckendorf, SMART will use “commercially proven technology” to continuously analyze airline schedules, weather, airport capacity, airspace conditions, and operational constraints in one unified system. The idea is to shift from being reactive to proactive, reducing disruptions, improving traffic flow, and increasing airspace capacity.
In a statement, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said SMART will eliminate “thousands” of delays and cancellations.
“Every day, our air traffic professionals knowingly manage thousands of scheduling conflicts across the National Airspace System, which ultimately end up as delays for the traveling public,” said FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford in a statement Monday.
Frank Matus, the director of uncrewed aircraft system (UAS) integration for Thales—another reported bidder for SMART—told FLYING in April that the FAA envisions SMART predicting airspace conditions up to six months in advance. Nick Daniels, president of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association (NATCA), said it will not handle any safety-critical functions that involve separating aircraft.
“Airlines are coordinating closely with the FAA to ensure SMART will provide more efficient routings and more predictable information about system capacity in order to balance capacity and demand,” said Chris Sununu, CEO of Airlines for America, in a statement. “A program of this kind has been talked about for decades.”
The FAA plans to begin initial deployments of SMART in September. Steve Fulton, an FAA senior certification advisor and technical pilot, said the early operational demonstrations will focus on en route airspace 24,000 feet and above, Aviation Week reported.
It is unclear how long it may take ASI to complete the system, but Bedford in April said the three SMART bidders had created “true digital twins” of the National Airspace System. Duffy in April said the DOT is seeking about $20 billion in funding, beyond the $12.5 billion that Congress provided last year for air traffic control modernization, to fund SMART’s deployment.
DOT said ASI’s $875 million contract also covers development of the FMDS, which analyzes flight plans, airline schedules, and real-time position updates to estimate current and future traffic flows and capacity limitations. Replacing an antiquated system, FMDS uses real-time predictive modeling to reroute flights around local weather constraints and streamlines the sharing of data between the FAA and airspace users, per the DOT.
With enhancements from SMART, the platform could fundamentally change how flights are scheduled and managed.
“With these two new technologies, the FAA can house all critical data in one platform and proactively identify delays and available airspace to mitigate them days, weeks, and even months in advance,” the agency said in Monday’s announcement. “These systems will also allow controllers to overlay weather patterns and flight paths into one central visualization.”