Earlier this 12 months, continual flight delays and cancellations at Newark Liberty Worldwide Airport revealed a litany of issues with antiquated air visitors management techniques. Immediately, these issues persist and are much more illuminated due to the federal government shutdown. For one, the Hollywood Burbank Airport air visitors management tower was left unmanned for hours this week as a result of shutdown. CNN additionally reported Tuesday 12 Federal Aviation Administration amenities had staffing shortages Monday night time.
Even Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy admitted earlier this 12 months a number of the decades-old laptop tools air visitors controllers use seems to be prefer it got here off the set of Apollo 13, and in contrast it to a 1967 Volkswagen Beetle.
Delta CEO Ed Bastian additionally revealed that, attributable to getting old air visitors management techniques, it really takes longer right now to fly from Atlanta to LaGuardia than it did within the Fifties when the airline opened that route.
“That’s the air traffic control system. It’s very slow. It’s congested,” Bastian advised TODAY in Might. “If you modernize the skies, you can kind of bring greater efficiency.”
By modernizing the skies, Bastian means utilizing satellite tv for pc know-how, the most recent state-of-the-art tools, and GPS. However presently, air visitors controllers have to make use of a radar point-and-shoot system from the Sixties.
“The screens look like something out of the 1960s and ‘70s,” Bastian mentioned. “Our controllers and our operators need the best in order to keep us safe and make sure it maintains its safety record.”
Delta didn’t reply to Fortune’s request for additional remark.
Regardless of a barrage of emergency landings, equipment failure, a collision, and different air visitors management failures within the airline business reported this 12 months, Bastian insists it’s nonetheless protected to fly.
“It is absolutely safe. It’s the safest form of transportation in the world,” Bastian mentioned. “The most skilled aviation professionals in the world work and operate the U.S. airspace. So it is absolutely safe.”
However simply because it’s protected doesn’t imply it’s acceptable for the U.S. to have such antiquated know-how working its airspace, Bastian mentioned.
Though there’s bipartisan help to modernize America’s air visitors management system, it’s a course of that requires a number of money and time. On Might 8, Duffy and President Donald Trump introduced a plan to construct a brand-new air visitors management system “that will be the envy of the world.”
The plan contains changing outdated infrastructure with wi-fi and satellite tv for pc applied sciences at greater than 4,600 air visitors management websites, constructing six new air visitors coordination facilities, and changing towers and terminal radar method management (TRACONs).
“Our antiquated air traffic control system is affecting our workforce,” the Federal Aviation Administration mentioned in a Might 5 assertion. “As Secretary Duffy has said, we must get the best safety technology in the hands of controllers as soon as possible.” Reuters reported in late March the FAA was quick about 3,500 air visitors controllers.
Neither Duffy nor Trump have revealed precisely how a lot that plan will price. The Home Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, although, estimates it may price $12.5 billion, however Duffy mentioned he estimates it’ll price greater than that. The Fashionable Skies Coalition, an umbrella group for aviation business teams, estimated it could price $31 billion or extra to perform Duffy’s plans.
However within the quick time period, the airline business is making changes to enhance flight delays and cancellations that consequence from air visitors management issues. Many airways are flattening their operations at Newark, Bastian mentioned, which reduces a number of the congestion on the airport.
“Now, that’s not good in the long run. It’s not good for consumers,” Bastian mentioned. “It’s not good for the airport itself, but it’s the only thing that we have in the meantime.”
A model of this story initially revealed on Fortune.com on Might 16, 2025.
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