The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has selected Air Space Intelligence (ASI) to deploy two software platforms designed to overhaul how flight schedules and airspace are managed across the National Airspace System (NAS). ASI said the contract is valued at $875 million over 12 years, though the FAA did not disclose the figure in its announcement.
U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean P. Duffy and FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford announced the selection on June 22 as part of the administration's "Modern Skies" initiative, which focuses on modernizing air traffic management systems and improving the efficiency of flight operations across the United States.
ASI will support the FAA’s Flow Management Data and Services (FMDS) program, which will serve as the technological backbone of the agency’s Air Traffic Control System Command Center. FMDS is designed to balance air traffic demand with available capacity while providing the data needed to support traffic management decisions.
A key component of the program is Strategic Management of Airspace, Routes, and Trajectories (SMART), a predictive traffic management system developed by ASI. According to the company, SMART analyzes airline schedules, weather, airport capacity, airspace constraints, and operational conditions to identify potential congestion before flights depart.
The agency said the technology is designed to support more proactive traffic management decisions and help balance demand and capacity across the NAS.
“FMDS with the SMART capabilities will help us address that challenge by improving how we manage airspace before flights depart, reducing congestion, easing controller workload, and directly cutting down delays across the system,” said FAA Administrator Bedford.
The FAA cited longstanding limitations of the current NAS as the driver behind the procurement. Data that controllers rely on (including weather patterns and airport capacity figures) are currently housed in separate systems, often requiring staff to consult multiple screens to access critical information. The new platforms are intended to consolidate that data into a single environment and allow controllers to proactively identify potential delays days, weeks, or months in advance.
This effort comes amid growing pressure on the NAS due to a series of radar and communications outages at Newark Liberty International Airport in 2025 that caused thousands of delays and cancellations. Recent congestion-related measures at major airports have further highlighted those challenges, including flight reductions in the New York region and at Chicago O’Hare International Airport, due to ATC staffing shortages, airfield construction, and chronic congestion.
Founded in Boston in 2018, ASI actively manages over 40% of all U.S. air traffic through its existing platforms and provides decision-making systems to aviation, defense, and logistics operators.
In April 2026, ASI expanded into the advanced air mobility sector with a partnership with Joby Aviation, an electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) developer for commercial "air taxi" service. The partnership is meant to accelerate the integration of eVTOL operations into the NAS, combining Joby’s operational experience with ASI's Flyways AI Platform, which uses high-fidelity 4D modeling to optimize flight operations.
According to the company, the partnership will also explore how software-defined approaches to airspace coordination could support increasingly autonomous flight operations.
