Advanced airline systems technology with the head of DataArt’s Aviation Practice. In the news: cloud-based air traffic control in the Washington, D.C., area; thousands of flights delayed and canceled after FAA and NATS system failures; safety reforms after the DCA midair collision; and the loss of a new Cessna Citation Latitude.
Tim McMullen is Vice President, Business Development, Aviation and Travel Technology, at DataArt. That company provides data and analytics services, artificial intelligence and machine learning services, cloud migration and optimization, and custom software engineering to the aviation and other industries.
Tim leads DataArt’s Aviation Practice and has spent nearly twenty years working with airlines worldwide on technology, from start-ups to the largest network carriers. He has provided clients with solutions in reservations, customer care, loyalty, network planning, pricing/RM, airline operations, dispatch, crew planning and scheduling, airport operations, aircraft maintenance, and cargo.
Tim previously worked as a software product manager and managed the end-to-end lifecycle of a SaaS suite of network planning, forecasting, and fleet optimization solutions. He also has 10 years’ experience at two airlines in network planning, pricing, revenue management, and finance.
The Strategic Management of Airspace, Routes, and Trajectories, or SMART, is characterized by the FAA SMART Fact Sheet [PDF] as “a cloud-based platform system that enhances existing FAA air traffic management systems. It provides air traffic control and aircraft operators with a shared, data-driven view of the National Airspace before flights depart.”
Using AI, SMART analyzes airline schedules, weather, airport capacity, airspace conditions, and operational constraints to forecast traffic flows and identify potential conflicts before they occur. It gives the FAA, airlines, and operators a shared, continuously updated view to coordinate efficient routes and departure times as conditions change.
The FAA is preparing to put SMART into operational use in the Washington, DC area in the system’s first operational fielding. SMART is part of the Flow Management Data and Services (FMDS) platform being built by Air Space Intelligence (ASI). The company says the award covers both systems and is worth US$875m over 12 years.
See also: FAA to launch AI-enhanced software to help manage the nation’s airspace
Video: Civil Aviation at ASI
FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford said that a circuit blew at the Philadelphia TRACON. When the system tried to switch to the backup, it discovered that a construction crew had cut the fiber-optic line. FlightAware reported that more than 5,600 US flights were delayed or canceled. The three New York-area airports accounted for 1,200 of those flights.
On September 8, 2026, over 2,000 flights in and out of the United Kingdom were canceled. A preliminary report faults a software glitch with NATS, formerly known as National Air Traffic Services. The system, which allocates codes, allows air traffic controllers to identify flights on radar. Hundreds of thousands of travelers were impacted, and it took days to fully restore operations.
Families of the victims of the January 2025 mid-air collision between an American Eagle CRJ700 commuter jet and a U.S. Army helicopter near Washington Reagan National Airport (DCA) are looking for Congressional action. Some of the family members are concerned that Congress isn’t up to the task. The father of one victim referred to it as “fading urgency” where “Something everyone agrees will make people safer gets caught in process, objections, exceptions and delay until you look up and an entire generation has passed. Flight 5342 cannot follow that path.”
The NTSB issued recommendations in its February 2026 final report on the DCA mid-air collision. These were directed at “deficiencies with area helicopter routes, Army helicopter operations in the DCA area, and the conduct of air traffic control — both in the DCA tower and the Potomac Consolidated TRACON (PCT) Terminal Radar Approach Control, and the management of both those facilities by the FAA’s Air Traffic Organization (ATO).”
The NTSB directed 33 recommendations to the FAA. Eleven 11 are classified as “Open—Unacceptable Response.” FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford issued a formal reply to the NTSB saying most would be implemented or resolved by the end of May 2027, when the FAA intends to issue already scheduled updates to manuals, policies, and procedures.
Among those recommendations is a mandate for ADS-B In with cockpit traffic display and audible alerts where ADS-B Out is already required. The ROTOR and Alert Acts in Congress would institute an ADS-B In mandate, but neither had cleared both chambers before Congress at this time.
On September 14, 2026, a Cessna 680A Citation Latitude jet, recently delivered to an Istanbul charter company, departed the runway at Misrata International Airport in Libya upon landing. The pilots got the jet back on the runway, but not after damaging the landing gear. The plane caught fire and was destroyed. The two pilots and the cabin attendant escaped unharmed. The pilots are in a Libyan jail and accused of being intoxicated.
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