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The Surface Awareness Initiative (SAI) is the FAA’s real-time surface picture in the tower — every ADS-B aircraft and equipped vehicle on the airport surface, built without radar. uAvionix’s deployed SAI system is FlightLine SAI.
Runway incursions remain one of aviation’s most-watched safety risks — yet most towers still cannot see the surface in low visibility, at night, or when a vehicle and an aircraft are converging. Legacy surface radar was only ever justified at the busiest hubs.
Source: DOT Office of Inspector General, FAA Runway Incursions report (Mar 2025); FAA Surface Safety Portfolio. Shared as attributed public context.
Real FlightLine SAI surface displays at operational SAI towers. Not a mock-up — the same picture, tuned to each field’s runways and taxiways.
No radar, no local servers. Receivers on the field feed the cloud, and the cloud draws the live surface picture at every controller position.
ADS-B Out on 978 & 1090 MHz.
Up to 4 GBRs on the field — no radar.
Processed & monitored 24/7.
A live map at 2–3 positions.
Every aircraft and equipped vehicle on a detailed, georeferenced airport map — the movement area at a glance.
Ground-Based Receivers capture both 978 and 1090 MHz — the full picture, from lightweight hardware, no radar.
VTU-20-equipped ground vehicles appear natively alongside aircraft — the traffic a surface picture must include.
Each target carries a history trail and a data tag with identity, position and speed — intent at a glance.
A surface picture that does not depend on visibility — day, night, rain or snow — monitored with redundancy.
Displays at 2–3 controller positions, with an optional TRACON view for sequencing and runway loading.
SAI is not a pilot project. It is a funded FAA program — and surface awareness for every FAA-towered airport is written into the national plan to rebuild air traffic control.
Refs: FAA Brand New ATC System fact sheet (2025); FAA Surface Safety Portfolio. SAI is one of three FAA Runway Safety Portfolio initiatives (with ARV & RID), within a multi-year ~$32B modernization targeted for 2028.
SAI reaches the surface two ways — depending on how the tower is operated. Both put the same live picture in front of the controller.
The receiver on the field, and the surface picture at the tower position.
SAI builds the surface picture the tower sees. VTU-20 puts ground vehicles into that same picture, and Surface Ops gives it back to drivers — one ADS-B world, seen from the tower, the flight deck, and the vehicle cab.
“FlightLine SAI is a key enabler in achieving zero serious close calls on the surface.”Christian Ramsey · Chief Commercial Officer, uAvionix
Each product is a chapter of one story — sense → see → be seen → be aware. This page is one chapter; start anywhere, they connect.
Surface awareness for the tower — the picture every vehicle and aircraft appears in.
You are here Sense · SeeRadar-like airspace awareness for contract towers — without the radar.
View page → Be seenThe FAA-approved vehicle transponder (VMAT) — ADS-B Out on the surface.
View page → Be awareThe tower’s picture & proactive runway alerts in the driver’s cab.
View page → AccessPortable ADS-B receiver for fields with no infrastructure at all.
Coming soon Be aware · cockpitADS-B In on the flight deck — Sentry is the receiver uAvionix builds for ForeFlight.
Partner ↗For controllers, the FAA, and the airport and safety community — SAI is the surface awareness the tower has been missing. Whether your airport is being scheduled for SAI, you run a contract tower and want the same picture, or you’re a stakeholder who wants a briefing, our Airports & ATM team is glad to walk you through it.