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The fragile state of the U.S. air traffic control system became glaringly obvious during a series of recent outages affecting passenger jets operating around the airport in Newark, New Jersey. Now, the transportation secretary is pushing Congress to allocate tens of billions of dollars for a brand-new air traffic control system. Cost is just one of the obstacles, as NPR's Joel Rose reports.
JOEL ROSE, BYLINE: Walking into many of the nation's air traffic control towers is like stepping back in time.
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UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: The information was put on flight progress strips that indicate the flight number, route, altitude.
ROSE: This newsreel from the 1960s shows how air traffic controllers used paper flight strips to keep track of planes.
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UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: These strips were distributed to all controllers in the Chicago center who would be controlling the flight.
ROSE: More than half a century later, air traffic controllers across the U.S. are still using paper strips. Many computer and telecom systems date back to the 1980s and '90s, depending on floppy disks and computers running on Windows 95. The Federal Aviation Administration found in 2023 that more than a third of the nation's air traffic control systems are unsustainable. And some are starting to fail, as we saw during the recent radar and communication outages that led to hundreds of delays and cancellations at Newark Liberty International Airport.
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SEAN DUFFY: This is the most important infrastructure project that we've had in this country for decades. Everyone agrees. This is nonpartisan. Everyone knows we have to do it.
ROSE: Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy wants a brand-new air traffic control system, and he has broad backing across the aviation industry, from the union that represents air traffic controllers to trade groups for airlines and manufacturers. They've all signed on to a coalition called Modern Skies, which produced this TV ad, leaning heavily on 1980's nostalgia, with leg warmers and portable cassette players.
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UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: That was then. But four decades later, floppy disks are still being used to run our air traffic control system.
ROSE: It's easy to joke about outdated equipment, but it will be a lot harder to make up for decades of underinvestment and failed attempts to modernize the system. Michael Huerta is a former head of the FAA under President Obama. He also chaired a safety review team that looked at the air traffic control system two years ago.
MICHAEL HUETRA: At its core, it's a money problem, where the FAA's been asked to do more with less, essentially.
ROSE: The Trump administration has not said how much a brand-new air traffic system will cost, though Secretary Duffy estimates it's in the tens of billions of dollars, and he's aiming to complete it within four years. This week, the Transportation Department asked private companies for their ideas on how to pull that off.
DAVID GRIZZLE: It's an extraordinarily ambitious plan.
ROSE: David Grizzle is a former chief operating officer at the FAA. He's encouraged to see that the Trump administration is looking outside of government for help. But Grizzle also sees some possible obstacles. The FAA has spent a lot of money on upgrades before, Grizzle says, but it hasn't always seen a big payoff.
GRIZZLE: The FAA has not been allowed to shut down old, ancient equipment. Even the money that they have for equipment, more than 90% goes to fund old equipment.
ROSE: There are other potential roadblocks, too. A big question is what to do about the air traffic control facilities that manage high altitude traffic. Currently, there are 21 of them, many old and falling apart. The DOT has proposed building only six new ones, leaving it unclear what would happen to the others. Former FAA administrator Michael Huerta says consolidation makes a lot of sense.
HUETRA: We probably don't need the number of facilities which were built at a time when technology was very different. We can get by with a smaller number.
ROSE: Though, Huerta says, the politics of consolidation will be brutal. For now, the industry is focused on the first obstacle - finding enough money to bring the air traffic control system into the 21st century.
Joel Rose, NPR News, Washington. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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