U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy is seeking $10 billion from Congress to finance the next phase of an extensive program to modernize the nation’s air traffic control system and cut down on widespread flight disruptions. The request focuses heavily on new software development intended to make air travel more efficient and on upgrades to towers and surface-awareness technologies.
Last year, Congress approved $12.5 billion for the program to replace outdated equipment and shore up understaffed air traffic control towers. Much of the fresh funding Duffy is requesting would go toward software tools that the department believes could reorganize traffic flows and limit cascading delays.
"The real magic truly is the software to manage the airspace," Duffy said in an interview.
The Federal Aviation Administration’s air traffic telecommunications infrastructure has experienced multiple failures, including significant outages affecting Newark airport traffic last year. The larger $12.5 billion appropriation followed long-standing complaints that antiquated systems and understaffed towers have contributed to airport congestion and frequent flight delays.
In March, the FAA twice had to halt all traffic to the Washington area’s three airports for more than an hour on each occasion because of problems tied to aging technology. Those events underscored concerns about the resilience of core systems and the need for comprehensive replacement and modernization.
Duffy has asked for additional funding aimed at tower improvements and surface awareness systems. He has previously indicated an ambition for $19 billion in total additional funding, but his current formal request to Congress is for $10 billion of that larger number.
Airlines commonly schedule more flights than the FAA can reliably handle. Duffy noted that looking out 45 days reveals schedules roughly 50% over capacity. He said newer software would enable the FAA to shift and space flights proactively to reduce delay risk.
"This tool lets us see and then spread flights in a way that allows for way less disruption," Duffy said. "We could fix this."
A 2023 report found that the FAA’s communications system has been outdated for years and that many systems can no longer be maintained because spare parts are unavailable. A separate review found that of the FAA’s 138 air traffic control telecommunications systems, 51 were judged unsustainable.
At an event on Tuesday, Duffy outlined progress already made: nearly 50% of copper wiring has been replaced, 270 radio sites have been converted nationwide, surface awareness systems have been installed at 54 airports, and 17 towers have moved to electronic flight strips.
"Rebuilding the infrastructure of our aviation system is not too big for America. We can actually get this done," Duffy told an aviation audience.
The FAA said that by the end of 2028 airports will have 5,000 new high-speed network connections using fiber, satellite and wireless technologies, 27,000 new radios and 612 state-of-the-art radars.
Context note: The funding request is presented as the next step in an ongoing modernization effort that has already received significant congressional support, and the administration is emphasizing software development and targeted infrastructure upgrades as central to reducing recurrent system failures and capacity shortfalls.