In a move announced Thursday, President Donald J. Trump and Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy have proposed a comprehensive plan to completely modernize the nation’s air traffic control (ATC) system.
The administration asserts this initiative will address long-standing issues and upgrade critical infrastructure, a task they claim the Biden Administration failed to undertake despite repeated warnings.
Highlighting the pressing need for an upgrade, Secretary Duffy stated, “We want this [antiquated system] truly in the Smithsonian. We don’t want to use this equipment, and words are cheap, right? The plan was hard for the FAA. They helped put this together, and I’m grateful for that. It was hard, but it’s also cheap. Even the work of Congress is not that hard.”
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“What we are going to do when we get the money. We have the plan we actually have to build a brand new state-of-the-art air traffic control system as we ask NACA to keep our air traffic taking off and Landing. That’s complicated. But we are America. We’ve let this go far too long.”
The proposal, which the Trump Administration says builds upon its previous efforts to enhance air travel safety and efficiency, has garnered vocal support from leaders across the U.S. airline industry.
Robert Isom, CEO of American Airlines, highlighted his decades-long awareness of the “antiquated technology” underpinning the current ATC system, viewing the new plan as the “best opportunity…in decades to do something about our outdated air traffic control infrastructure.”
Bob Jordan, CEO of Southwest Airlines, commended the “stellar leadership” of Secretary Duffy and President Trump in unifying stakeholders to tackle a “decades old” challenge, expressing confidence in the plan’s potential for success.
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The Trump Administration’s plan outlines several key modernization efforts:
Infrastructure Replacement: A sweeping upgrade of outdated infrastructure at over 4,600 air traffic control sites. This includes the installation of state-of-the-art fiber optics, wireless systems, and satellite technologies, along with 25,000 new radios, over 600 new radars, and 475 new voice switches.
New Coordination Centers: The construction of six new air traffic control coordination centers, marking the first such expansion in sixty years.
Facility Modernization: The replacement of existing towers and Terminal Radar Approach Control facilities (TRACONs). All air traffic facilities are slated to receive modern hardware and software to establish a common, updated platform throughout the entire network.
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Joanna Geraghty, CEO of JetBlue, underscored that ATC modernization has been the airline’s “number one priority for decades” and expressed pride in “what appears to be a solution and path to move forward.”
“We are going to stand up. We are going to stand together, and as one great country, we are going to build a brand new system that is worthy again of the greatest country that has ever existed on the face of the Earth,” said Duffy.
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