U.S. Department of Transportation Secretary Sean P. Duffy yesterday announced a plan to spend billions modernizing the “antiquated” U.S. national airspace system, which relies largely on 1960s infrastructure, ensuring the safety of millions of air travelers.
While Duffy did not disclose a budget amount for the urgent improvement program, but the detailed proposal from the Federal Aviation Administration asserts: “Any dollar invested in U.S. airspace is a prudent investment: Aerospace generates 5 percent of US GDP, the equivalent of $1.25 trillion, and accounts for over 2 million jobs.”
Reuters reports that airlines and other aviation stakeholders have called for “at least $31 billion in spending.” A U.S. House panel reviewing the needs has proposed a $12.5 billion investment.
ATC Meltdown At Newark Was Call To Action
The announcement follows a meltdown of air traffic control at Newark Liberty International Airport, which was partly attributed to a 60 to 90-second radio communications outage at the FAA facility in Philadelphia, which is responsible for managing air traffic at the New York gateway. A systems outage meant controllers could not communicate with aircraft and briefly lost radar information transmitted from the Federal Aviation Administration facility in Westbury, New York. The FAA relocated air traffic control to Philadelphia last year to work around controller shortages, but the move has also been stressful for controllers.
This system malfunction happened when 20% of controllers had taken trauma leave due to job pressures. Current construction at Newark also restricts the number of active runways at the airport. These factors combined to cause chronic delays and cancellations for over a thousand flights last week.
Concerns over safely meeting scheduled flight requirements at the airport led United Airlines to reduce its operations at Newark by 35 daily flights and to ask the USDOT to implement Level 3 slot controls at Newark.
However, proposed traffic reductions at Newark won’t be enough to manage the ongoing risk of air traffic control deficiencies nationwide.
Trump Administration Proposes Brand New, State-of-the-Art ATC
The proposal announced yesterday for a “brand new, state-of-the-art air traffic control system” aims to address the long-term needs of the national airspace.
“Under President Trump, America is building again. Today, we are seizing a once-in-a-generation opportunity to build a brand new, state-of-the-art air traffic control system,” said Duffy. “Decades of neglect have left us with an outdated system that is showing its age. Building this new system is an economic and national security necessity, and the time to fix it is now. The unprecedented coalition of support we’ve assembled – from labor to industry – is indicative of just how important it is to this administration to get done what no one else could. The American people are counting on us, and we won’t let them down.”
National Airspace Is Safe But Needs To Be Safe And Efficient
In the proposal, the FAA explains that the national airspace system is not adequate to manage increased traffic as air travel returns to pre-COVID levels.
“To be clear, the NAS is safe. However, maintaining that safety will come at the expense of efficiencies as the FAA will be forced to throttle down air traffic as outdated systems suffer from outages,” the FAA proposal states.
The FAA outlines a “3-year framework” of reinvestment through an emergency supplemental funding increase. Funding for the FAA’s air traffic control infrastructure has remained flat at around $3 billion per year for the past 15 years, the FAA explains. With inflation, the FAA says the purchasing power of its budget is diluted by up to $1 billion a year.
“We can no longer wait for funding levels to slowly catch up to the need,” the FAA states. “We need an immediate infusion of funding to address critical infrastructure needs.”
Early Warnings Should Have Been Acted On Sooner
The FAA references early warnings that U.S. air traffic has reached critical mass, requiring immediate modernization of the national airspace system.
“The outage of a critical air traffic control system made international news in January 2023 when it caused the first nationwide ground stop since 9/11. The NOTAM system that failed, causing thousands of flight delays and cancellations, is just one of many crucial air traffic systems that, along with hundreds of facilities and thousands of pieces of infrastructure equipment, make up the NAS,” the FAA states. “Many of these systems, facilities, and equipment are decades old, antiquated, or obsolete and have outlived their useful service lives. While the FAA has highlighted the need to replace these critical legacy systems, facilities, and equipment before, the risk is greater now more than ever. Modernization of the NAS can no longer take 10+ years to complete; it must be done now.”
Four Key Infrastructure Components For Safer Air Travel
Under the new plan, the FAA will replace core air traffic management infrastructure focusing on four components: communications, surveillance, automation, and facilities. The FAA would replace telecommunications at over 4,600 sites with 25,000 new radios and 475 new voice switches. It will also replace 618 radars past the end of their life cycle. The FAA would build six new air traffic control centers, the first such construction since the 1960s. It will also replace towers and Terminal Radar Approach Controls. All air traffic control facilities would get new hardware and software, ensuring the commonality of systems nationwide. The FAA would also address runway safety by increasing the number of airports equipped with Surface Awareness Initiative Systems to 200. Furthermore, the FAA will tackle unique challenges in Alaska by adding 174 new weather stations.
