The Federal Aviation Administration said it expanded a new artificial intelligence-supported air traffic management tool to all 22 of its air route traffic control centers three days before it ordered a nationwide ground stop on departing flights.
The tool, Strategic Management of Airspace, Routes and Trajectories, or SMART, is meant to shift air traffic management from a reactive approach to a predictive one, the FAA said.
It merges about 200 data streams, such as flight paths, schedules, weather, airport capacity and controller staffing, onto a single platform to anticipate demand, weather and airspace constraints hours, days or weeks ahead.
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Air Space Intelligence, the technology company behind the SMART system, said Friday evening the new system did not cause the ground stop.
“The current ground stop is not based on or a result of the SMART system, any product of ASI or our integration with FAA and ATC,” it said.
Neither the FAA nor Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy has linked SMART to Friday’s ground stop, and it is unclear what prompted the stop. Mr. Duffy said it is a “communications issue.”
SEE ALSO: FAA grounds all flights across U.S. due to telecommunications outage
The FAA ordered departing traffic at all U.S. airports to remain grounded “due to extraordinary circumstances and for reasons of safety,” according to an FAA advisory. Inbound international flights are being handled on a case-by-case basis.
Mr. Duffy said the communications issue affected all Air Route Traffic Control Centers and that FAA technicians were investigating.
The FAA has said SMART recommends early routing or schedule changes to help flights avoid severe weather or congestion, with the aim of reducing delays and saving fuel. Since a partial launch on Sept. 21, the agency said it has rerouted 180 flights, saving an average of about 10 minutes and almost 80 gallons of fuel per flight.
FAA specialists review every recommendation, and local facility leaders can accept or decline them, the agency said. Controllers remain responsible for keeping aircraft separated.
SMART was first used in the airspace around Reagan National, Dulles International and Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall airports in the Washington area. It is being built by Air Space Intelligence under a 12-year, $875 million contract awarded in June that also covers a related data platform.
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