SkyLink Airways made aviation history yesterday with the world's first commercial passenger flights piloted entirely by artificial intelligence.
The pioneering airline's inaugural journey from Stockholm to New York was operated by a suite of autonomous flight systems that have been tested over thousands of hours. The flight still carried two human supervisors, but they sat in a behind-the-scenes control room, only able to monitor the systems and unable to manually intervene.
Aviation regulators in Europe and the United States granted temporary certification for the AI‑piloted flights after extensive simulation and test runs. Proponents say the technology could reduce human error and improve efficiency, while skeptics warn that an overreliance on automation could introduce new risks.
Passengers on board reported an eerily smooth experience, with the aircraft automatically adjusting its course to avoid turbulence and even optimizing fuel burn in real time. "It felt like any other flight, except I knew no one was physically in the cockpit," said traveler Maria Svensson. Workers' unions, however, caution that widespread adoption could threaten pilot jobs unless regulators require human oversight for the foreseeable future.
