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FAA expands AI advice to manage air traffic congestion across entire US airspace

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Based on a feed excerpt; full article content has not been acquired. Source evidence retrieved 13/11/2026, 22:28:23 UTC.

Briefings

The FAA expanded its AI tool SMART to manage air traffic across all 22 centers in the US, replacing the previous National Capital Region rollout. Since September 21, the system has rerouted 180 flights, saving an average of 10 minutes per flight and nearly 80 gallons of fuel per flight. Airline executives support the expansion, but the US labor union representing air traffic controllers stated it was not involved in designing or testing the system.

Key points

• The FAA expanded the SMART system to all 22 air traffic centers across the US, replacing the previous National Capital Region rollout.
• Since September 21, the system has rerouted 180 flights, saving an average of 10 minutes per flight and nearly 80 gallons of fuel per flight.

Context

The FAA announced the expansion on November 10, aiming to replicate the initial success in Washington, DC across the entire national airspace system. Airline executives have supported the rollout, while the US labor union representing air traffic controllers explicitly stated it was not involved in designing or testing the AI-driven system.

Limitations

Evidence covers only the period from September 21 to November 10, 2026. The system's impact on the entire US airspace remains unverified beyond the initial Washington, DC rollout. The labor union's involvement in design and testing is not confirmed by the evidence.

Generated by Bittrees-hosted qwen35-2b sha256:aaf42c8b7c3c on 13/11/2026, 22:51:19 UTC. Based on publisher-provided feed evidence; may not cover the full original article. Check the source for details.

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