The Federal Aviation Administration is days away from launching an artificial intelligence tool to help manage air traffic over Washington, D.C., and the airlines still cannot get answers to some basic questions about it, including whether they can opt out.
Politico reported Friday that despite roughly three months of near-weekly meetings, carriers remain unclear on whether air traffic controllers themselves will use the AI and whether airlines need to train staff on it. Industry officials described weeks of confusion over how deeply the system would be woven into daily operations, with one telling the outlet that people had been "freaking out" about it.
The panic eased, according to Politico, after agency officials told the industry the tool would be used in a limited way at first. Carriers had worried it might drive up cancellations and rescheduling in the name of relieving bottlenecks.
The system, called Strategic Management of Airspace Routing Trajectories, or SMART, will generate alternative routing options that travel through the FAA's existing channels to controllers. FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford has said a 90-day testing period will precede any wider rollout. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, who has faced scrutiny over the agency's handling of aviation safety, has promoted the effort.
The rollout is part of a broader push to modernize an aging air traffic control system following two fatal accidents. An American Airlines regional jet and an Army Black Hawk helicopter collided over the Potomac on Jan. 29, 2025, killing all 67 people aboard both aircraft in the deadliest US commercial aviation accident in more than 20 years. The NTSB's final report found a chain of failures across multiple parts of the government.
In March, an Air Canada Express jet landing at LaGuardia struck a firefighting vehicle that had been cleared to cross the active runway, killing both pilots and injuring dozens. The NTSB found the airport's runway safety system did not generate an alert before the collision.