AI-powered SMART air traffic system to dramatically reduce flight delays, cancellations debuts
WASHINGTON — Air traffic management is getting SMARTer.DC-area airports have begun deploying an advanced new artificial intelligence-powered air traffic management tool aimed at dramatically reducing flight delays and cancellations as part of a 90-day pilot program.The new Strategic Management of Airspace, Routes and Trajectories (SMART) tool, which is set to deploy at other airports across the country over the coming months, uses AI to predict weather and other interruptions so that air traffic managers have dynamic data to better coordinate flights.“You’re going to be on the airfield much faster.
Your airline is going to use less fuel,” Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy told reporters.“We are not outsourcing aviation to AI.”“Humans control the airspace, humans make decisions, but we’re just getting way better technology, way better foresight.”Duffy jokingly referred to the new tech as “dumb AI,” while trying to emphasize that SMART won’t be making any air traffic management decisions on its own, but will simply give managers better information, including predictive data to make key decisions.
The current system typically relies on old-fashioned paper maps of flight routes and a variety of static datasets, including weather, departure times and arrival times.SMART will get real-time data.It will be able to project how weather might delay flights and allow managers to give pilots more precise information on how to avoid it, as well as plan for those snarls, for example.“It’s a traffic separation tool,” Federal Aviation Administration administrator Bryan Bedford explained.
“…Now we actually have an opportunity to look holistically at what’s going on in the airspace, not just at this minute, but what we project will be going on in the space over the course of the day.”In theory, the new system will also reduce air travel costs and reduce carbon emissions due to the increased efficiency.The new tool was developed by Boston-bas...