The Federal Aviation Administration will embark on an ambitious three-year plan to modernize America’s air traffic control systems and phase out the “outdated technologies that are unable to meet” modern demands, officials said Thursday.
The federal government has been under pressure to address mounting traveler concerns in the wake of fatal crashes, ongoing delays and an embarrassing recent revelation that the airspace controllers for Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey lost all contact with pilots last week after a failure of the copper wiring that transmits radar data from New York to Philadelphia TRACON.
President Donald Trump said he sympathizes with passengers trapped in airports because of air traffic delays.
“I’m sorry what you’re going through with the terminals, but we’re going to get them fixed up,” he said in a phone call with Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy.
Trump said too much air traffic data and communications run through “equipment that’s from the 1960s, if you can believe it, doesn’t even mesh with the plane.”
Duffy acknowledged the administration will need considerable assistance from Capitol Hill.
“I need help. I can’t do it by myself, and it’s going to take the help of the Congress to make that happen,” he said. “So to do it in three or four years, we need all of the money up front.”
Reps. Sam Graves of Missouri and Rick Larsen of Washington, the top Republican and Democrat on the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, appeared with Duffy and vowed to make a bipartisan effort.
“We’ve talked about how this effort spans, sometimes, administrations. We don’t want the effort to span generations,” said Larsen, who represents a district north of Seattle.
“Democrats will be ready to stand with you, Sean, to improve the safety of us aviation,” he said.
The FAA said ever-increasing consumer travel demands make the upgrades an absolute necessity.
“As the National Airspace System (NAS) users increase, the FAA’s air traffic system is based on outdated technologies that are unable to meet the demands,” it said in a statement Thursday.
“These outdated systems are showing their age — which leads to delays and inefficiencies. The lack of funding for major investments in key air traffic infrastructure, such as radars, telecommunications, and facilities, is now putting the aviation sector at risk.”
The FAA plans an accelerated “full replacement” of its current Time Division Multiplexing network with an internet protocol by 2028 in hope of smoothing over and safeguarding communications on busy air traffic control channels, officials said.
Some air traffic voice communications are conducted on “legacy radios” more than 30 years old that “rely on outdated analog technology” and should be replaced by 2027, officials said.
The government also seeks to build six new “state-of-the-art” ATC centers “for the first time since” the 1960s, the FAA said.
The FAA also intends to quickly upgrade surveillance systems as “618 FAA airborne radar systems “exceed their intended lifespan.”
Demands on all of those systems are only growing, the government said.
“The agency needs greater technology investment to better accommodate increasing commercial space and re-entry activity and unmanned aircraft systems activity,” the FAA said.
The flying public has been growing increasingly worried in the wake of several accidents this year.
An American Eagle jet and a military Black Hawk helicopter collided in the air over Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport outside Washington, D.C., killing all 67 people aboard both on Jan. 29.
An air ambulance crashed in northeast Philadelphia on Feb. 1, killing seven people and injuring about two dozen more.
Bering Air Flight 445 crashed on its way from Unalakleet, Alaska, to Nome on Feb. 6, killing all 10 people on board.
And 21 people were injured in February when a plane overturned upon landing at Toronto Pearson International Airport.
Loved ones of some of the victims of the Reagan Airport collision appeared at the event to support modernization.
“We mourn with you, and we’re going to be with you now and for the long run,” American Airlines CEO Robert Isom said.
“This accident should never have happened,” he said. “I thank you for being here, because it is using this moment to really do great things going forward.”