The FAA wants to reboot the nation's airspace. This airline shows how it might work
The FAA is partnering with Air Space Intelligence to modernize U.S. airspace management using the 'Flyways AI' software. Alaska Airlines has already successfully implemented the tool to optimize flight routes, resulting in significant fuel and time savings.
Why it matters
Integrating AI into national infrastructure could drastically improve efficiency and sustainability in the aviation industry.
On a typical day, Alaska Airlines operates roughly 1,500 flights, most of them guided by a team of dispatchers on the sixth floor of an office building near the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport known as "The Hub."
The dispatchers sit in a big open room, surrounded by as many as five flatscreen monitors that display real-time information on air traffic, weather, upper-level wind patterns, and more.
It's a lot to process. But these dispatchers are getting some help from a software tool called Flyways AI.
"It ingests all that information," said Alek Mead, a manager in Alaska's Network Operations Center, "and it really kind of puts us all together in a nice little package for the dispatcher to look at, take some options, maybe play around with some different ideas, and then pick the most efficient and the safest route."
Get smarter about the news
Sign up free for a feed built around what you actually care about, Dive Deeper research on any story, and the full text of every article.
Create free accountAlready have an account? Sign in