WASHINGTON — Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy touted some of the first successes of a massive, multibillion-dollar air traffic system modernization effort during a summit at department headquarters in Washington, DC, on Tuesday.
Thousands of outdated telecommunications equipment like radios and phones are being swapped for brand-new models. Hundreds of radars are being upgraded. And the paper flight strips used by air traffic controllers to guide flights are getting ditched for new electronic ones — all accessible on one computer screen, Duffy and other officials said.
As of this month, nearly 50% of the old copper wires powering critical communications between air traffic controllers and pilots have also been replaced with new, high-speed fiber optic cables.
The transportation secretary has pledged that the changes will be completed by 2028, thanks to the $12.5 billion approved for the modernization in President Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill — but noted that the federal government tried 25 years ago to revamp the air traffic control system.
In the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks, Congress passed billions of dollars in funding to update the old hardware and software of the system as part of an effort known as NextGen.
Officials highlighted during the Department of Transportation summit, however, that many air traffic control facilities were still using floppy disks.
The system has “basically” been held “together with shoe string and duct tape,” said former New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu, who is now serving as CEO of the trade association Airlines for America.
But it wasn’t until a tragedy struck in DC that the president, Congress and the DOT were able to chart a path forward to revamp the system.
“A little over a year ago, we had the DCA air crash,” Duffy told attendees. “It prompted us to take a look at the systems that we are using to manage our airspace. That was at the direction of the president. I did that along with the FAA.”
“And what we realized was that we used an incredibly old, antiquated system technology from the ’60s, ’70s, ’80s and ’90s,” he noted.
The National Transportation Safety Board determined that the mid-air collision of the American Airlines passenger plane and an Army Blackhawk helicopter over Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport in January 2025 was due in part to “degraded radio reception” as well as other factors.
The FAA also allowed the helicopter’s route to be in too “close proximity” to the runway path — despite collision risk and other data cited by air traffic controllers. “[T]he FAA failed to act on recommendations or available information to mitigate the identified risk,” the 388-page report noted.
“Is flying safe? Is the airspace safe?” Duffy asked rhetorically at the summit. “Of course it’s safe. It is the safest mode of transportation. … But it’s not safe because we have the best systems in place; it’s safe because we have fantastic air traffic controllers and highly skilled pilots.”
Left unsaid was whether the recent fatal crash at LaGuardia Airport was a result of user error by an air traffic controller or pilot, outdated systems or something else entirely. A report on the Air Canada plane’s collision with a fire truck on the runway is expected in the coming days.
DOT officials later gave reporters and social media influencers a tour of some of the outdated infrastructure following the public remarks by Duffy, Sununu and others.
One voice switch on display had been yanked from an air traffic control tower in Charlottesville, Va., earlier this year after being installed in 1994.
It still featured analog push buttons and dials, rather than the touch-screen display of the 5,100 newer models that are being set up for communications. At least 2,400 of those are already on the way to being operational, one official noted.
Asked whether this system was in place during the telecommunications blackout at Newark Liberty International Airport in April 2025, FAA program manager Clarissa Riffe told The Post: “They were using legacy voice-switch, but it wasn’t the voice switches that were the problem — it was the telco.”
Amy Patel, who serves as air traffic systems director for the FAA, added that paper strips previously used to “manage traffic” at airports will now be seamlessly digitized.
She likened the old system to a printed list of directions that makes it difficult for controllers to keep their eye on the “road.”
“This gives them the ability to look up and out,” Patel added. “To make sure that the decisions they are making are accurate and safe for the flying public.”
Much of the system upgrades are now being done by Peraton, which has partnered with DOT and nabbed nearly $200 million in contracts over the past year, according to federal data.
Duffy several times in his remarks mentioned that Congress would have to get involved to fund more software changes, griping that the current system is “somewhat like Windows 95.”
“Does it work? Yes. But if you think how far we come with software developers, the future is revolutionary on the tools that we can now use to manage the airspace,” he said.
FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford in his remarks hinted at those changes — a “third leg of true modernization” — that could cut time spent taxiing on the runway or waiting at the gate to board flights.
“Forty minutes of my flight is sitting on the ground waiting for someone else to get out of my way so I can actually get off the plane,” Bedford explained of the blocks of time. “We can do better.”
“Smart systems that we’re building, strategically managed, air-routing systems … will get us to a place where we actually start the day knowing how we can deliver to the American public,” he added. “We can fly them safely, and we can fly them on time. And that is what we’re asking Congress to fund for us. That is the opportunity for the future.”
