() Federal aviation officials last week unveiled an ambitious, three-year plan aimed at modernizing the U.S.’s air traffic control system.
The plan calls for a new, state-of-the-art system to replace the outdated technology currently in use, which includes floppy disks and computers running the Windows 95 operating system. According to NPR, air traffic controllers also still use slips of paper containing flight numbers to help track the approximately 45,000 flights that the Federal Aviation Administration handles on a daily basis.
“The whole idea is to replace the system,” acting FAA administrator Chris Rocheleau said. “No more floppy disks or paper strips.”
A 2023 FAA assessment determined that more than a third of the country’s air traffic control systems were unsustainable. Some had already begun to fail.
System failures most recently hit Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey, where staffing shortages and equipment issues have caused mass delays over the past few months. The delays forced FAA officials to curtail the number of flights in and out of the airport.
Airline officials pointed to those system failures in a recent open letter to Congress urging legislators to provide adequate funding to overhaul the “wildly outdated” system.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy last week described the proposed plan as the “most important infrastructure project” the U.S. has seen in decades.
“Everyone agrees, this is non-partisan,” Duffy said at a news conference. “Everyone knows we have to do it.”
It was unclear how much the authorities believe the project will cost, though Duffy has estimated the price tag at somewhere in the tens of billions of dollars, NPR reported.
