Air Space Intelligence, a San Francisco company, builds Flyways, machine-learning software that predicts how the US airspace will behave up to eight hours ahead and suggests better routes. In June 2026 it won the FAA's 12-year, 875 million US dollar contract for the software behind the national air traffic command centre.
Founded in 2018, it has about 50 staff and is backed by Andreessen Horowitz, which led its 34 million US dollar Series B in December 2023. Flyways models the National Airspace System in four dimensions, giving airline operations centres and air traffic managers an early view of congestion and weather so flights can be re-planned before problems build. Initial FAA operations are targeted for autumn 2026.
Alaska Airlines was the first adopter, at its network operations centre in 2021, and renewed in 2024. The airline reports optimisation opportunities on 55 per cent of flights, fuel savings of 3 to 5 per cent on sectors over four hours and 1.2 million gallons saved in 2023. Delta and United are named users on vendor and press evidence, and a partnership with Joby on airspace was agreed in April 2026.
Aviation AI deployments and updates
01 / Deployed · limited scope
FAA SMART airspace and trajectory management platform
On 21 September 2026 the FAA began using SMART, its Strategic Management of Airspace, Routes and Trajectories platform, in a limited mode in the airspace around Washington, D.C. The agency plans to expand it gradually.
SMART pulls together 200 data streams through what the FAA calls an AI-supported engine. The FAA is clear that it cannot replace air traffic controllers.
Air Space Intelligence was selected as the technology partner, the FAA said on 22 June 2026.
Not everyone is convinced. Democrats on the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee have asked for an audit of the software.
Alaska Airlines uses Flyways, an AI route-optimisation platform from Air Space Intelligence, to suggest more efficient flight paths to its dispatchers. In a six-month trial in 2020 and 2021, Alaska said, Flyways found fuel-saving opportunities on 64% of mainline flights; dispatchers accepted 32% of the suggestions, saving 480,000 gallons of fuel and 4,600 tons of CO2.
Alaska renewed the partnership in August 2024 after four years of use. Its newsroom said on 9 August 2024 that Flyways found optimisation opportunities on 55% of flights and delivered 3 to 5% fuel and emissions savings on flights longer than four hours, and that it saved more than 1.2 million gallons of fuel in 2023, equivalent to 11,958 metric tons of CO2.
An AI and machine learning-powered airspace intelligence platform designed for commercial airlines and air traffic management units. The platform provides 4D predictive situational awareness, continuous flight path optimization, network management, and dispatcher decision support.
The problem it addresses
Airlines and air traffic management units lack predictive visibility into future airspace conditions, resulting in suboptimal route planning, increased fuel consumption, delayed responses to traffic congestion, and reactive rather than proactive management of irregular operations. The platform addresses these gaps by modeling the National Airspace System in four dimensions and generating optimized route recommendations ahead of time.
Key features
4D lookahead simulation of airspace including air traffic, weather, winds, and surface conditions, forecasting up to 8+ hours ahead
Autonomous evaluation of operational safety, ATC compliance, and efficiency for planned and active flights
Continuous generation of optimized route recommendations (lateral route, altitude profile, and speed) for dispatchers and flight crews
AI-powered Traffic Management Initiative (TMI) recommendations for demand/capacity imbalance management
6 more features
Flyways Dispatch application for real-time dispatcher insights and flight following
Network-wide optimization across all scheduled and active flights simultaneously rather than single-flight focus
Two-way air-to-ground communication integrated into the platform; ACARS, XML, and Type B message support; ARINC/SITA-agnostic
Operational replay and analytics capability logging every geospatial and temporal event for training, compliance, and retrospective analysis
Peer-to-peer secure communication and enterprise-wide alerting and collaboration
Pre-departure flight planning, surface management, flight following, and enroute optimization workflow support
Technical specifications (7)
Integrated with SWIM (System Wide Information Management) FAA data feeds
Integrated with CoSPA (Consolidated Storm Prediction for Aviation)
100+ pre-integrated geospatial and data feeds including ADS-B, AIS, and government feeds
Open data architecture allowing integration with legacy and third-party systems
Machine learning models of the U.S. National Airspace System
Platform compliance: SOC II Type II, DoD SRG IL4-IL6, NIST 800-171, CMMC L2
Processes millions of data inputs across the full NAS simultaneously
Certifications and approvals
SOC II Type II
DoD SRG IL4-IL6
NIST 800-171
CMMC Level 2
Integrates with
FAA SWIM (System Wide Information Management)CoSPA (Consolidated Storm Prediction for Aviation)ADS-B data feedsAIS (Aeronautical Information Service) data feedsACARS messaging infrastructureARINC messaging networksSITA messaging networksXML and Type B message traffic systems
Profile data from the Aerostack companies register; deployment records from the verified register. Evidence grades: T1 first-party confirmation, T2 credible reporting. See Our approach for how records are graded.
Aerostack companies register
Aerostack tracks AI deployments across airports and airlines, with the published evidence behind each record. Photography is real aviation imagery. Record thumbnails may show the named airport or airline; other photographs do not.
