Duffy: ‘Envy of the World’ ATC System Could Be Installed Within 3 Years

During a cabinet meeting with President Donald Trump and other high-level White House staff, Duffy questioned why upgrades to the system—which stakeholders widely agree uses outdated technology—had not been made sooner.

“The problem is in government, it takes way too long,” Duffy said. “So technology changes, money changes, and administrations change. We have to do this fast, which is why we need the partnership from the Congress to give us the money up front.”

The transportation secretary added: “Our towers are operational, keeping planes in the air. So we have to choreograph this. But we can do it in short order.”

Duffy is expected to release the Department of Transportation’s official plan this week, Reuters reported on Friday. Trump has reportedly been briefed on and offered his support for the initiative.

Duffy in a press conference earlier this month said he plans to request “tens of billions of dollars” from Congress to support a modernization of air traffic control. The FAA’s systems and procedures have garnered increased scrutiny amid a string of fatal and near-fatal incidents, including a collision between a U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter and commercial passenger jet in January that killed 67 people. In February, a coalition of aviation groups urged Congress to approve “robust emergency funding” to address these concerns.

The regulator has already accepted several safety recommendations from the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), such as barring “nonessential” helicopter operations at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (KDCA), where the midair occurred.

According to Duffy, FAA personnel are also deploying artificial intelligence to help identify “hot spots” for potential crashes and near misses.

“If there’s another ‘DCA-esque’ situation out there, our AI tools will help us identify those and take corrective actions, preemptively as opposed to retroactively,” he said.

But Duffy does not want to stop there. Earlier this month, the transportation secretary said he wants to purchase new radar systems and control terminals, boost air traffic controller hiring, and replace copper telecommunications wiring with “fiber, wireless, and satellite.” He has also vowed to end the use of floppy discs and install runway safety technology that will “allow our air traffic controllers not to use binoculars in the tower to see where aircraft are at.”

Duffy has described the air traffic control system as “aging” and “understaffed,” echoing assessments by the aviation industry and other government agencies. Per an FAA air traffic controller workforce plan, in September 2023, the agency was 2,000 to 4,000 certified professional controllers (CPCs) short of its staffing target at U.S. airports. Around the time of the January collision, the control tower at KDCA was three CPCs short.

A Government Accountability Office (GAO) report, produced in the wake of the 2023 notice to airmen (NOTAM) system crash, recommended the FAA take urgent action to modernize “numerous aging and unsustainable air traffic control systems.”

The regulator has been attempting to do just that under its NextGen program, which has been running for decades but according to GAO has made “mixed progress.”

More recently, the agency awarded a $2 billion contract to Verizon to build critical infrastructure for its FAA Enterprise Network Services (FENS) program over the next 15 years. According to the FAA, FENS will install “highly available and secure communications, information services, and networking capabilities” for air traffic control.

But that contract could be in jeopardy. Multiple reports have suggested SpaceX’s Starlink could take over Verizon’s agreement, a contention Starlink has denied. The FAA earlier this month said it is testing Starlink terminals at two “non-safety critical sites” in Alaska and a facility in New Jersey.

On Tuesday, the agency told FLYING it is testing eight Starlink connections and “multiple other technologies including wireless” at two of its facilities, but a final decision on deployment will come from the FAA administrator. Trump last week nominated Bryan Bedford, former CEO of Republic Airways, for that role.

“To update our air traffic control system, it will require multiple companies and multiple technologies,” the FAA said in a statement shared with FLYING. “That is why we are testing multiple communication technologies, including satellites, fiber and wireless to ensure the safety of the national airspace system. Beyond that, no decisions for other deployments have been made.”

The agency said Starlink testing is being conducted under the FAA Telecommunications Infrastructure (FTI) program, managed through a contract with L3 Harris. The FAA and Verizon describe FENS as a successor to FTI. But Duffy and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk have decried Verizon’s pace of implementation. Musk claimed the system, which is not yet operational, is “not working” and “putting air travellers at serious risk,” later admitting he meant to direct his ire toward L3 Harris and FTI. Verizon in response said its solution “stands ready to be deployed.”

“We continue to have productive discussions with the FAA, but we have no additional updates to offer right now,” a Verizon spokesperson told FLYING.

The FAA is also taking steps to “supercharge” air traffic control hiring. On Friday, the agency announced it qualified and referred more than 8,000 candidates to the Air Traffic Skills Assessment (ATSA) exam, with nearly 200 of them passing the test and moving on to the hiring process. It estimates those efforts have shaved five months off its previous hiring pipeline.

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