FAA Awards 12-Year, $875M SMART Air Traffic Management Contract to Startup ASI, Beating Palantir and Thales

FAA Awards 12-Year, $875M SMART Contract to Startup ASI

Startup Air Space Intelligence (ASI) — which claims its Flyways AI platform already manages more than 40% of U.S. air traffic — has beaten out industry giants Palantir and Thales to win a major FAA contract to build a system capable of predicting airspace conditions months in advance.

The U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) formally awarded the contract on Monday. According to Reuters, the deal is valued at $875 million over 12 years. The contract covers development of the Strategic Management of Airspace, Routes, and Trajectories (SMART) system, which DOT describes as a "capability enhancement" to the FAA's Flow Management Data and Services (FMDS) platform — itself currently under development as a replacement for the existing Traffic Flow Management System (TFMS).

From Reactive to Predictive

ASI CEO Phillip Buckendorf said SMART will apply "technology validated in commercial environments" to continuously analyze flight schedules, weather conditions, airport capacity, airspace conditions, and operational constraints within a single integrated system. The goal is to shift from reactive to proactive management — reducing flight delays, improving traffic flow, and increasing airspace efficiency.

U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said in a statement that SMART would eliminate "thousands" of delays and cancellations.

FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford added on Monday: "Every day, our air traffic management professionals consciously work through thousands of schedule conflicts across the National Airspace System — conflicts that ultimately translate into delays for travelers."

Forecasting Up to Six Months Ahead — Without Safety-Critical Functions

Thales UAS Integration Director Frank Matus revealed in an April interview with FLYING that the FAA wants SMART to predict airspace conditions as far as six months in advance. National Air Traffic Controllers Association (NATCA) President Nick Daniels emphasized that SMART will not involve any safety-critical functions related to aircraft separation.

"U.S. airlines are actively working with the FAA to ensure SMART delivers more efficient routing and more predictable system capacity information to balance capacity and demand," said Airlines for America CEO Chris Sununu. "Programs like this have been discussed for decades."

Initial Deployment in September, Focused on High-Altitude Routes

The FAA plans to begin initial SMART deployment in September 2025. FAA Senior Certification Advisor and technical pilot Steve Fulton indicated that early operational demonstrations will focus on en-route airspace above 24,000 feet, as reported by Aviation Week.

The timeline for ASI to complete the full system remains unclear. Administrator Bedford noted in April that all three vendors that competed for the SMART contract had already built "live digital twin" models of the National Airspace System. Secretary Duffy also indicated in April that beyond the $12.5 billion Congress allocated last year for air traffic control modernization, DOT would need to secure an additional approximately $20 billion to fund SMART's full deployment.

FMDS Upgrade Poised to Overhaul Flight Management

DOT confirmed that ASI's $875 million contract also covers FMDS development. FMDS estimates current and future traffic flow and capacity constraints by analyzing flight plans, schedules, and real-time position updates. As a replacement for legacy systems, FMDS uses real-time predictive modeling to reroute traffic during weather disruptions and streamlines data sharing between the FAA and airspace users.

With SMART's enhancements layered on top, the combined platform is expected to fundamentally transform how flights are scheduled and managed.

"With these two new technologies, the FAA can centralize all critical data on a single platform to proactively identify delays days, weeks, and even months in advance and take action," the FAA said in Monday's announcement. "These systems will also allow controllers to overlay weather patterns and flight paths on the same central visualization interface."

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