The FAA took its AI air traffic tool nationwide after just 180 rerouted flights

The Federal Aviation Administration has switched on its AI traffic-routing adviser across all of US airspace. The public evidence behind that decision is thin: 180 rerouted flights from a seven-week trial around Washington, D.C.

The tool, called SMART, matters well beyond government. Airlines pay for every delay in fuel, crew time and missed connections. The startup that built it, Air Space Intelligence (ASI), was valued at $3 billion last month. And the FAA is reportedly negotiating to own a piece of it.

The FAA said on November 10 that SMART now runs in all 22 of its en route centers, the regional facilities that manage planes between airports. Coverage built through November 12 and 13, along with fresh questions from lawmakers and the controllers' union.

What the tool does, and what it has shown

SMART pulls together about 200 data feeds, including weather, flight plans, traffic volumes and controller staffing. It flags places where demand may exceed what the airspace can handle. Then it suggests reroutes before the jam forms.

It is an adviser, not an autopilot. FAA specialists in Washington review its output and send recommendations to the agency's national command center in Warrenton, Virginia. Local managers decide whether to act. Controllers still keep planes safely apart.

The FAA's published results so far come from the first phase, which began September 21 around Reagan National, Dulles and Baltimore/Washington airports. The agency says SMART rerouted 180 flights, saving each about 10 minutes and nearly 80 gallons of fuel on average.

Gizmodo put the fuel saving at about $345 per flight, using a jet fuel price of $4.31 a gallon. Across 180 flights, that comes to roughly $62,000 in fuel and about 30 hours of flying time, by machine.net's arithmetic.

That is small next to the money involved. ASI's FAA contract, awarded in June, is worth up to $875.9 million over 12 years. It covers SMART and a related system that balances flight demand against airspace capacity. Transportation officials and lawmakers have also urged Congress to provide $600 million to finish rolling out SMART and that broader system.

The comparison is incomplete. The bigger prize is fewer delays and cancellations across the whole network, which a fuel figure does not capture. But the FAA's figures include no network-wide delay data. Trade outlet iTechPost noted the figures cover only the Washington period and should not be treated as nationwide results.

Moving faster than its own test plan

Airlines were told a full rollout would follow a 90-day test period, Gizmodo reported. The nationwide expansion came about seven weeks in. Gizmodo said it was not clear why the FAA had outpaced its own timetable.

More than two dozen House Democrats asked the FAA in October to pause the tool until it explained its safety testing, staff training and oversight. Most Democrats on the House transportation committee also asked the Government Accountability Office, Congress's auditor, to review it. AVweb reported that the November 10 announcement did not answer those questions.

The National Air Traffic Controllers Association, which represents more than 15,000 members, says it was not involved in designing, testing or rolling out SMART. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy has said a human will always manage US airspace. In August, he said the agency would "slow-roll different aspects" of the system rather than deploy it all at once.

Airlines have been publicly supportive, and American Airlines CEO Robert Isom has praised the tool. But Politico reported that airlines privately held concerns before launch. The Wall Street Journal reported the first launch was smaller than officials had expected, according to FLYING magazine.

Why buyers and investors should watch

For ASI and its backers, a nationwide government deployment is a showcase customer to point to in every future sale. The company raised $325 million at a $3 billion valuation in October. It is pitching the same technology for defense and power grids.

The FAA's reported push for an ownership stake complicates that picture. Politico reported in October that preliminary terms would let the government buy ASI shares at a set price, with the offer expiring at the end of 2026. Neither the FAA nor ASI commented. A customer that is also a shareholder may gain more control over the product, FLYING noted. It may also have more reason to declare it a success.

For corporate buyers of AI, the episode is a familiar pattern on a larger stage. A promising pilot with modest, self-reported numbers becomes a full rollout before the agreed test ends. The useful questions are the ones lawmakers asked: what was measured, against what baseline, and who checked it.

The next real proof point is delay and cancellation data across the whole system through the winter storm season, when congestion is worst. Until the FAA publishes it, the public case for SMART rests on 180 flights.