The FAA is reportedly pursuing an unprecedented move to support its multibillion-dollar modernization of the nation’s aging air traffic control system.
According to Politico, which cited an internal FAA document, the agency has a term sheet for an equity stake in Air Space Intelligence (ASI) and is negotiating to acquire a warrant that would give it the right to buy the company’s stock. The agency in June awarded ASI a 12-year contract worth up to $875 million to develop the AI-powered Strategic Management of Airspace, Routes and Trajectories (SMART) air traffic management platform.
Officials have described SMART as a crucial pillar of the Transportation Department’s Brand New ATC System (BNATCS) project, which is also replacing or upgrading thousands of radios, radars, voice switches, facilities, and other ATC hardware and software. The DOT in September began rolling out the platform for airspace management in the Washington, D.C. area. It plans to deploy SMART nationwide by spring 2027, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said in August.
SMART’s initial deployment has been controversial. More than two dozen Democratic legislators this week urged the FAA to pause its use of the system until officials share more about how it works. The National Air Traffic Controllers Association (NATCA) said it was not “involved in the design, testing, or implementation” of the technology. The lawmakers said frontline aviation safety workers had either zero or very limited notice of SMART’s rollout.
Neither the FAA nor ASI immediately responded to FLYING’s request for comment. The agency told Politico it could not immediately provide comment.
FAA Seeks More Control of ATC Modernization
Politico reported that the FAA’s negotiation for a warrant for ASI stock is the first known instance of the agency pursuing an ownership stake in a private company.
In the U.S., the practice is historically rare and typically reserved for times of crisis. But it is becoming more routine under President Donald Trump’s administration.
The report comes a few weeks after the Government Accountability Office (GAO) alleged the agency’s ATC modernization effort may face cost overruns, schedule delays, and unmet goals. FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford disputed that characterization.
Bedford also revealed that the initial phase of BNATCS will cost about $16 billion. He and Duffy in September asked Congress for $30 billion—on top of the $12.5 billion lawmakers previously allocated toward BNATCS—to support further ATC and airport upgrades. In 2025, officials estimated the total cost of BNATCS at $31.5 billion.
Facing a rising budget and the time pressure of completing the first phase of ATC upgrades by the end of 2028, the FAA is apparently seeking greater control over one of the effort’s key contractors.
ASI was founded in 2018, and a spokesperson in April told FLYING that its Flyways AI platform manages more than 40 percent of all U.S. air traffic. Users include military and logistics customers and carriers such as Alaska Airlines.
Flyways is fed by more than 100 data links, including the FAA’s system wide information management (SWIM) platform, and is designed to predict airspace conditions eight-plus hours into the future.
SMART is a similarly predictive system, though officials have said it is being developed to create a picture of the airspace not just hours but days, weeks, or even months in advance. The New York Times reported that it will initially manage only same-day delays for three D.C.-area airports.
According to the DOT, SMART synthesizes information from hundreds of data streams and uses it to make recommendations to controllers, which they can accept or decline. The data will centralize weather patterns, flight paths, traffic flow, controller staffing levels, and other information. Recommendations are reviewed by FAA staff before being delivered to controllers.
Though the agency has made significant progress on other portions of the BNATCS effort, Bedford in August said the program will “not be successful” unless SMART is rolled out in tandem.
