In a new story this week, Fortune reports on how Seattle-based Alaska Airlines is pioneering the use of software to better predict weather and air traffic and help flight planners map out routes. The technology, called Flyways, is made by Palo Alto, Calif.-based startup Airspace Intelligence, whose website only says that it’s “the future of flight control.”

Fortune reports that Alaska has been using the AI alongside its flight planners for the past year, from the company’s new headquarters facility in SeaTac, south of Seattle, called “The Hub.” The trial produced big savings in jet fuel and lower carbon dioxide emissions, and improved on-time performance. And now Alaska will be the first airline to use the software more extensively as it rolls out the system to help dispatch all of its flights — more than 1,000 daily departures — in the lower 48 states.
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