Duffy unveils plan to overhaul air traffic control

Duffy's plan includes upgrading communications, surveillance, automation, and facilities.

• Replacing antiquated communications equipment at more than 4,600 sites, which will include 25,000 new radios and 475 new voice switches.
• Replacing 618 radar installations that have exceeded their expected service life.
• Increasing the number of airports using technology to monitor aircraft movement on the ground to 200. The FAA expects to have the technology in place at 50 towers by the end of 2025.
• Building six new ATC centers for the first time since the 1960s, as well as rebuilding several towers and terminal radar approach control facilities.
• Installing new hardware and software for all ATC facilities.
• Installing 174 new weather stations in Alaska.

Duffy called on Congress to allocate all of the funding up front so work can be completed in the next three to four years.

“One of the problems of the past is when you give small tranches of money year over year, politics change, leadership changes, presidents change, interests changes, and it never gets built,” said Duffy.

Duffy promised to provide quarterly updates to Congress to maintain accountability.

Jennifer Homendy, the National Transportation Safety Board chair, said the agency examined its safety recommendations developed after accidents and incidents, and found recommendations going back nearly three decades that have not been implemented, most recently after near-misses at John F. Kennedy International Airport and Austin-Bergstrom International Airport.

Homendy pointed out that at the final hearing on the near miss in Austin, the NTSB found FAA weather personnel in the tower worked out of a room with no windows, no cellphone service, no internet, and no access to the FAA intranet.

“I welcome today’s announcement,” said Homendy. “The fact is an aging system poses an untenable risk to safety... and I am hopeful that the vital investments that we’re talking about today will not only bring us closer to implementing NTSB safety recommendations but achieving our ultimate goal of zero aviation deaths.”

The Modern Skies Coalition, which is made up of a wide range of aviation stakeholders, including pilot organizations such as AOPA and leading aviation companies, endorsed Duffy’s plan.

AOPA President Darren Pleasance also spoke during the news conference, along with leaders from across the aviation industry.

“Without a doubt, we have the safest aviation system in the world and it has never been safer. But that doesn’t mean it can’t be safer... And we owe it to all of us who utilize this national airspace system to make it as safe as it can be and to invest in the technology it requires to achieve that,” said Pleasance.

The announcement comes one week after the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee introduced a $12.5 billion bill that is a “downpayment” on funding the replacement of decades-old radar and communications systems, and expanded recruitment and training of air traffic controllers.

Duffy’s tenure as secretary began one day prior to the midair collision in January between a regional jet and a U.S. Army helicopter in Washington, D.C., which was the first in a series of high-profile accidents and ATC issues this year that have prompted questions about aviation safety.

Weeks after the crash, Duffy highlighted the need for broad safety changes, which include modernizing decades-old technology and “supercharging” ATC staffing, which currently has thousands of unfilled positions.