WASHINGTON — The Federal Aviation Administration on Monday began testing an artificial intelligence system intended to help manage flights serving the three major Washington-area airports. The Strategic Management of Airspace Routing Trajectories system, known as SMART, is being deployed at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, Washington Dulles International Airport and Baltimore/Washington International Airport. The initial test is scheduled to last 90 days before the FAA considers expanding the technology to other parts of the country. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy and FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford presented SMART as a decision-support tool for air traffic controllers. The system will process real-time information, including changing weather conditions and aircraft movements, and recommend ways to organize flights more efficiently. “It’s always going to be a human that manages the airspace in America,” Duffy said at a news conference announcing the launch. Both Duffy and Bedford emphasized that the technology is not intended to replace controllers. Bedford said SMART could help address situations in which weather changes quickly while planes remain on the ground waiting for instructions. It also could identify flights headed for the same airport with overlapping arrival times and recommend small route adjustments to prevent aircraft from reaching the airport simultaneously. The FAA expects those recommendations to reduce some departure and landing waits, although officials did not provide estimates for how much delay the system might eliminate. Duffy said travelers could begin noticing improvements by next summer as the agency and airlines gain experience using the tool. The rollout follows concerns from some airline officials about adopting the system. Bedford demonstrated SMART for airline chief executives on Sept. 10, according to two airline officials familiar with discussions between the industry and the FAA. Those officials said the meetings helped ease some uncertainty, while Bedford said the demonstration highlighted the volume of work controllers currently handle when coordinating flights. The launch comes as the FAA faces continuing pressure to modernize the nation’s air traffic control infrastructure and address congestion. Because SMART is initially limited to three airports and remains in a testing phase, its effect on passengers and flight reliability will depend on how accurately its recommendations perform in live operations—and how effectively the agency maintains human oversight.