Inside airlines' panic as FAA pushed new AI tool

J. David Ake/Getty Images POLITICO reports airlines are cautious but optimistic about an AI tool for airspace management. The tool aims to reduce flight delays by predicting and managing airspace congestion. Confusion over the FAA's vague description of its much-hyped plans eased in the past week. Airline industry officials have finally stopped panicking about the Federal Aviation Administration's soon-to-launch artificial intelligence tool for managing flights and easing congestion in air travel, multiple people familiar with the situation told POLITICO. Weeks of industry confusion over the FAA's vague description of its much-hyped plans eased in the past week when agency officials told them they would use the tool in just a limited way at first, said the people, who were granted anonymity to discuss internal conversations. The tool, dubbed Strategic Management of Airspace Routing Trajectories, or SMART, is set to debut in coming days, offering advice to air traffic controllers managing flights for the three airports that serve the nation's capital, according to two industry officials. The hope, according to FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford, is that after a 90-day testing period the tool will be rolled out on a wider scale. Before the FAA eased the airlines officials' concerns, one of their biggest worries was how extensively the AI would be integrated into day-to-day air traffic management, one of the industry people said. "I think that's what people were freaking out about," the person said. Instead, according to another industry official, the SMART tool is not expected to create any new procedures for air traffic controllers or for the airlines. It will simply generate alternative route information that is passed through the FAA's existing systems and procedures. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy has touted the tool, aimed at easing congestion in the skies. But three airline officials said the industry was bewildered for weeks about how the system would work, and that a sustained series of meetings with the FAA had left them with more questions than answers. "We've been requesting and … talking to [FAA] and saying, 'Let's narrow the scope of this. Start, crawl, walk, run.' And I think ultimately that's what they decided to do," said one airline industry official, who like the others, was granted anonymity to discuss internal conversations with the agency. In a statement, FAA spokesperson Hannah Walden said the agency is "moving at record speed to modernize America's National Airspace System, and SMART will fundamentally change the way we manage our skies." "Instead of waiting for congestion or weather to cause delays, SMART helps us see problems coming and act before they do," she said. Walden added that airlines have been "at the table" since the very beginning and FAA is "welcoming their feedback as we deploy SMART, which is why we're taking a slow, methodical approach to the rollout." With Duffy and Bedford leading the charge, the FAA has fully embraced artificial intelligence to help tackle some of its persistent problems following a series of high-profile aviation disasters, highlighted by the deadly midair collision over Washington in January 2025 and a fatal March runway crash at LaGuardia Airport in New York. It's part of a wider overhaul aimed at bolstering the nation's rickety air traffic control system. During the discussions, some airline officials fretted that the AI tool could inject chaos by prompting increases in flight cancellations and reschedulings in the name of preventing aviation bottlenecks and avoiding weather-related delays. That could become a costly headache for both airlines and passengers, though nobody involved alleged that the system would compromise safety. As confusion continued to reign across the airline industry, the FAA convened several meetings last week, including one on Sept. 10 between the major airline CEOs and Bedford. It helped ease many of the airlines' concerns, two of the airline officials said. According to a fourth airline official, granted anonymity to discuss the executives' meeting, Bedford presented the FAA's vision and strategy, and the CEOs' reception to the plan was "exceptionally favorable and supportive of the effort." The CEOs of United Airlines, American Airlines, Delta Air Lines and Southwest Airlines were among those who attended the meeting, several airline and one government officials said. Duffy hinted this week at the modest ambitions for the tool, which is part of a larger 12-year, $875 million contract effort to modernize air traffic control. "We have to do a slow roll into the airspace," he said at a Tuesday talk at the National Artificial Intelligence Association in Washington. And in a recent interview with POLITICO, Bedford said the rollout's roughly 90-day first phase will focus mainly on testing the system and building airlines' confidence in its predictions. How SMART? Bedford said Tuesday that the FAA will work with airlines