By David Shepardson
WASHINGTON, Sept 10 (Reuters) – The head of the Federal Aviation Administration met Thursday with the CEOs of major U.S. passenger airlines on the agency’s plan to use advanced software to overhaul flight scheduling to improve flight management.
FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford met with top executives from American Airlines, United Airlines, Delta Air Lines, Southwest Airlines and others on the agency’s plan to begin rolling out the system known as SMART this month.
“It’s going to be transformational,” Bedford told reporters in late August. “We’ll make much better decisions if we have better decision-making tools.”
The system involves using predictive analytics. The plan is to initially use it to more effectively reschedule flights that were canceled due to bad weather. Its use could later be expanded to other tasks such as strategically coordinating schedules and trajectories before aircraft depart.
Separately, Bedford will testify next week before a U.S. House appropriations subcommittee on the status of the $12.5 billion overhaul of air traffic control. The FAA wants another $10 billion for further improvements.
The FAA in June awarded an $875 million, 12-year contract to Air Space Intelligence for a system dubbed Strategic Management of Airspace, Routes, and Trajectories or SMART, which uses data to analyze airline schedules, weather, airport capacity, airspace conditions and operational constraints to predict traffic flows and identify potential conflicts before they occur.
The system uses data to prevent significant congestion and delays by strategically coordinating schedules and trajectories before aircraft take off.
Facing rising demand, runway construction, severe weather issues and air traffic controller shortfalls, the FAA has struggled to address congestion issues for years.
In April, the agency ordered airlines at Chicago O’Hare to cut 300 daily flights through October 2027, citing congestion concerns. In June, the FAA extended flight cuts at Newark and other New York-area airports.
Airlines for America, the main industry trade group that organized the meeting with Bedford, praised the FAA SMART initiative, saying it “will have a direct positive effect on American travelers” by reducing delays and cancellations across the country.
United CEO Scott Kirby said, “Using SMART to open airspace intelligently has the potential to significantly reduce delays and cancellations during weather events.”
(Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by David Gregorio)
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