FAA Begins Using AI to Manage Air Traffic at Washington-Area Airports

The Federal Aviation Administration has begun running artificial intelligence software to help manage air traffic at three of the Washington, D.C., region's busiest airports, a limited rollout that is drawing renewed scrutiny less than two years after a midair collision near one of those airports killed 67 people.

The tool, called SMART, for Strategic Management of Airspace, Routes and Trajectories, started operating in a pilot phase last month at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, Washington Dulles International Airport and Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport. In an interview published this week, the chief executive of the company that built the software sought to address what he called public "fear" about AI inside one of the country's most safety-critical systems, insisting that human controllers remain in charge of every decision.

A $875 million bet on predictive software

The FAA awarded the contract — worth $875 million over 12 years — to Air Space Intelligence, a Boston-based company, in June, as part of a broader overhaul of the nation's aging air traffic control infrastructure known as Modern Skies. According to the agency's own description of the system, SMART pulls in roughly 200 data streams — weather patterns, flight schedules, runway congestion, airspace restrictions and controller staffing levels — to flag potential scheduling conflicts up to two hours before they would otherwise surface, rather than the roughly 15-minute window traffic managers currently work with.

• Contract value: $875 million over 12 years, awarded to Air Space Intelligence
• Pilot airports: Reagan National (DCA), Dulles International (IAD), Baltimore-Washington International (BWI)
• Data inputs: about 200 streams, including weather, traffic flow and staffing levels
• Broader modernization: a separate $12.5 billion effort to replace software, radar and hardware nationwide

Phillip Buckendorf, the company's co-founder and chief executive, said the system is explicitly designed to leave final authority with people. "The machine never makes a decision. It's a human operator, the air traffic manager," he said, describing the tool's function as similar to a chess engine that lets traffic managers see several moves ahead rather than reacting in real time. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, who unveiled the tool, has made a similar case publicly, saying that "we are not outsourcing aviation to AI" and that human controllers will continue to separate aircraft directly.

The shadow of a deadly collision

The rollout is occurring in some of the most closely watched airspace in the country. On a night in January 2025, a U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter collided with an American Airlines regional jet on approach to Reagan National, killing all 67 people aboard both aircraft — the deadliest U.S. aviation disaster in more than two decades. The National Transportation Safety Board's investigation attributed the crash to a chain of human and systemic failures, including a faulty helicopter altimeter reading and the FAA's own failure to act on years of warning signs. Board investigators later disclosed that the agency had recorded more than 15,000 instances of insufficient separation between helicopters and airliners near the airport since 2021, including 85 events the NTSB classified as close calls.

That history has shaped how the AI rollout is being received. The FAA's broader modernization push was itself announced in the aftermath of the crash and a string of radar and software outages that have periodically grounded or delayed flights. The agency is also working through a longstanding shortage of certified controllers — roughly 11,000 as of this spring, more than 1,500 short of its staffing target — that has forced many of those remaining into mandatory overtime.

Lawmakers and controllers push back

The pilot program has become a flashpoint in Congress. Rep. Don Beyer, the Virginia Democrat whose district includes Reagan National, called on the FAA to pause the system shortly after it went live, arguing that residents near the airport remain unsettled by last year's crash and were not adequately briefed before a new, unproven technology was introduced into one of the world's most complex airspaces.

"Dangerously rushing a system that holds Americans' lives in its hands is not a good use case for artificial intelligence," Beyer said, adding that the roughly 24 million passengers who pass through Reagan National each year deserve independently verified proof the software is safe before it expands further.

Rep. Pramila Jayapal of Washington state raised similar concerns, saying safety "must always be the FAA's number one priority" and demanding more information about what the rollout means for travelers. The National Air Traffic Controllers Association, the union representing the workforce that will ultimately rely on the tool's recommendations, said it had not been consulted on SMART's design or testing and could not yet assess its effect on controllers' workload, adding that any new technology "should complement and not replace the experience, training, and professional judgment" of its members.

Not everyone in the industry has been critical. Airlines for America, the trade group representing major U.S. carriers, called the system "exciting and bold," and United Airlines' chief executive has said publicly that, if it performs as designed, it could reduce delays and cancellations more than any change in decades. Southwest Airlines, the dominant carrier at BWI, said in a statement that it was "encouraged" by the technology's potential to ease congestion for its customers.

Who is affected, and what happens next

For now, the tool is being used only by the traffic managers who oversee airspace flow in and around the three pilot airports — not by the controllers who separate individual aircraft on approach and departure, a distinction FAA officials have repeatedly emphasized. Travelers moving through DCA, Dulles and BWI are the first to be affected, though neither the Maryland Aviation Administration nor the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority, which operate the three airports, has published an independent assessment of the rollout; both referred inquiries to the FAA.

FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford has said the tool should reduce ground stops and give airspace managers more precise information for navigating severe weather, with officials and the company projecting a 12- to 24-month path to nationwide deployment. Duffy has said travelers should expect only gradual, incremental improvements to delays by next summer rather than an immediate transformation. Beyer's office has not said whether it will pursue legislation or hearings to force a pause, and the FAA has given no indication it plans to halt the expansion. The agency has said it will continue briefing lawmakers and the controllers' union as the pilot phase continues, with a wider rollout to additional airports expected to follow over the next two years.