by Lacey Pfalz
Last updated: 9:00 AM ET, Fri September 11, 2026
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) met with the CEOs of major U.S. airlines ahead of the agency’s plan to use a new advanced software called SMART to take over flight scheduling in the United States.
According to Reuters, FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford met with leaders of major U.S. carriers, including American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, Southwest Airlines and United Airlines, to brief them on the new technology, which the FAA wants to implement this month.
The system, called Strategic Management of Airspace, Routes, and Trajectories, or SMART, uses “predictive analytics” and will initially be used to reschedule flights canceled due to bad weather. It could later be used for other purposes, such as coordinating schedules or trajectories.
The FAA awarded a 12-year contract worth $875 million to Air Space Intelligence for the system, which can analyze several types of data, including weather, airline schedules, airport capacity and more.
“It’s going to be transformational,” Bedford told reporters in August. “We’ll make much better decisions if we have better decision-making tools.”
Bedford is scheduled to testify before a U.S. House appropriations subcommittee on the $12.5 billion overhaul of air traffic control next week. The FAA is requesting another $10 billion from the federal government.
Airlines for America, the trade association advocating on behalf of the major U.S. airlines, praised the new system, saying that it will reduce delays and cancellations and “have a direct positive effect on American travelers.”
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