FAA to Roll Out AI Air Traffic Control Tool
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What happened
The Federal Aviation Administration is set to begin using a new artificial intelligence tool, SMART (Strategic Management of Airspace Routing Trajectories), at the three major airports serving Washington, D.C., as soon as next week. Boston-based Air Space Intelligence is building the system under an $875 million, 12-year contract awarded in June; it combines airline schedules, weather data, and runway capacity to forecast congestion and recommend alternative routes. FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford said a roughly 90-day first phase will test predictions and airline confidence before any broader rollout, with recommendations flowing through existing FAA systems rather than new controller procedures. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy has tied the project to modernizing the National Airspace System after accidents this year that included a January 2025 midair collision over Washington and a March runway crash at LaGuardia Airport. The agency plans to unveil a central SMART office at the Transportation Department’s headquarters.
Sourcing check · Mostly on the record · 3 articles
2 of 3 articles cite a named source for the story. It started with unnamed sources; a named source appeared within the hour.
What these terms mean and how they're counted
- On the record · names a source 2 of 3
- On the record means the article cites a source by name for the story's main claim: a person, or an institution speaking officially, such as a company statement or a named agency's spokesperson. The opposite is an unnamed source. The count is how many of the counted articles cite at least one such source; the names are everyone named across them, each once however the articles spell it. Here: FAA, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, Hannah Walden, Bryan Bedford and Airlines for America
- Primary evidence · cites a document or data 0 of 3
- Primary evidence means the article cites a record you could check yourself: a court filing or ruling, a dataset or report, a recording or transcript, an official statement or press release, market data. A quote is not a document. The count is how many articles cite one. Here: None cited.
- Credits another outlet 1 of 3
- The article says the story comes from another outlet's reporting (“first reported by Reuters”). Those articles relay the story; they are not independent confirmation. Here: The Wall Street Journal
- Unnamed sources 1 of 3
- The main claim is attributed to people who are not identified: “people familiar with the matter”, “officials said”. The count is how many articles do this.
- How it developed
- When the first report landed and whether it named anyone; when the first named source and the first document appeared. Here: First report Sep 18, 20:21 UTC by New York Times, with no named source. First named source within the hour, from Business Insider.
- Not counted 0
- Opinion, analysis and video pieces, and articles too short to assess. Every count above is out of the counted articles. An article republished under a new headline is one article.
This is about who is cited, not whether the story is true. Each source below says what it names. How we count
Omitted — what each side leaves out
Unpacked
The two sides give opposite pictures of how much control the FAA is claiming. Left-leaning coverage in Business Insider reports that SMART will create no new procedures for controllers or airlines and will only pass alternative routes through existing systems. Right-leaning coverage in Breitbart omits that limit and instead carries Bedford's argument that the FAA should manage scheduling rather than let airlines "schedule however they want."
Left-leaning coverage leads with weeks of airline panic and confusion before a narrowed debut. Right-leaning coverage instead opens on a Trump administration modernization push and does not mention that alarm.
What happens when a controller's judgment and a SMART-recommended route disagree?
Bottom line
Business Insider reported a 90-day test after airlines panicked. Breitbart never mentions that panic and instead highlights Bedford's bid to have the FAA, not the carriers, run scheduling.
The receipts — 4 facts one side's coverage lacks
- FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford argued the agency should manage scheduling rather than rely on commercial airlines to schedule however they want.
- SMART will not create any new procedures for air traffic controllers or airlines and will send alternative routes through existing FAA systems.
- The roughly 90-day first phase will focus mainly on testing the system and building airlines' confidence in its predictions.
- The project is part of a Trump administration push that has committed billions of dollars to modernizing air-traffic infrastructure and speeding hiring and training of controllers.
The Left View
Left-leaning coverage, led by POLITICO reporting republished in Business Insider, frames the debut as following weeks of airline-industry “panic” and confusion over the FAA’s vague description of how extensively AI would enter day-to-day traffic management. Anonymous industry officials said carriers asked the agency to “narrow the scope” and “start, crawl, walk, run,” fearing the tool could prompt more cancellations and reschedulings; they called it “a big relief” that SMART will not create new procedures. An FAA spokesperson said the tool will “fundamentally change the way we manage our skies” while the agency takes “a slow, methodical approach,” with airlines “at the table.” Outlets also present the project as part of an overhaul of a “rickety” system after the January and March accidents. Even after a September 10 meeting at which CEOs’ reception was described as “exceptionally favorable,” three officials said the FAA still had not answered in granular detail whether controllers would use the AI, who would feed routing information, whether airlines needed new training, and whether they could opt out. United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby said that if it works as expected, “it will do more to reduce delays and cancellations than anything that’s happened in decades.”
The Right View
Right-leaning coverage presents the launch as part of a Trump administration push that has committed billions of dollars to modernizing air-traffic infrastructure and speeding controller hiring and training. Breitbart, citing the Wall Street Journal, reports that government officials say the limited initial scope was the plan from the start and that SMART must be validated before the FAA expands it to spacing arrival times or planning routes days in advance; for now, controllers will use it as a decision-making aid, not a replacement for existing processes. Bedford testified that “the way we manage traffic today is chaotic, and we can do better” and argued that “we need to manage that at the FAA, rather than rely on commercial airlines to simply schedule however they want.” Airlines for America called the effort “one of the most exciting and bold initiatives taken on by the FAA in decades.”
Our Take (balanced)
The left-leaning account’s strongest argument is contemporaneous industry testimony that airlines spent weeks alarmed by vague FAA plans, successfully pressed to constrain the tool, still lack answers on opt-out, training, and data flows, and feared costly extra cancellations—support that later CEO statements of optimism do not erase. The right-leaning account’s strongest argument is Bedford’s on-record insistence that current traffic management is “chaotic” and that scheduling should be managed by the FAA rather than left to carriers, together with officials’ claim that a modest, aid-only first phase was always intended. The central unresolved tension is whether the constrained Washington-area debut is a pre-planned validation of a decision-support tool or a walk-back from deeper AI integration that would shift scheduling power from airlines to the FAA.
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