WASHINGTON — Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy unveiled a plan Thursday to revamp the nation’s failing air traffic control system by 2028 — following a deadly plane crash outside Washington, DC and thousands of radar and communications outages that have spooked officials, lawmakers and passengers alike.
“This is bold, this is gonna be challenging, but we absolutely can do it,” Duffy declared of his plan, which calls for at least six new air traffic control centers replacing 1960s-era facilities; swapping out old-fashioned copper wiring for fiber-optic, wireless and satellite technology at 4,600 locations; and replacing 25,000 radios and more than 600 radar installations.
Though Duffy’s plan didn’t come with an exact price tag, the secretary hinted it would cost “tens of billions” of dollars.
Meanwhile, the Republican-led House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee has already floated a proposal for the air traffic control system’s upgrade that amounts to $12.5 billion.
The Trump administration has also put in a $4 billion initial budgetary request for fiscal year 2026 to update the technology and facilities.
“We should be using fiber, but it’s copper. We use radar from the 1970s,” Duffy explained. “Some of them are from the 1980s, but most of them are from the 1970s, so this technology is 50 years old that our controllers use to scan the skies and keep airplanes separated from one another.”
A Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) official and other airline industry insiders warned earlier this week that roughly 1,000 telecom outages were plaguing the industry every week — and airports should be expecting “more and more” without a significant upgrade.
That caution came after a 90-second blackout hit controllers overseeing Newark Liberty International Airport last week, when a frayed piece of copper wire caused flight disruptions and some FAA workers to take “trauma leave,” according to CNN.
“I think Newark has been a great example,” Duffy said Thursday. “The backup line didn’t fire and so we had that 30 to 90 seconds of a blackout, which is frightening if we don’t actually accomplish the mission that we’re announcing today.”
“It’s long past time when we need to fix this problem,” acting FAA Administrator Chris Rocheleau added.
Mid-presentation, the cabinet secretary phoned President Trump, who said he’d like to give out “one, big beautiful contract” for the “complete rebuilding and modernization of America’s air traffic control system.”
“Everything from digging ditches to the most sophisticated stuff,” Trump teased, saying “reliable service … is long overdue.”
The president also paused to recognize victims’ families from the Jan. 29 mid-air collision between an Army Black Hawk helicopter and a passenger plane on approach to Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, which killed 67.
“What a horrible thing that was,” Trump said to the family members in the audience. “Earlier this year, if they had a system in there, we wouldn’t have had a problem, but you know, the people have devoted themselves to making the skies safer, and we’re going to make them totally safe.”
Duffy also predicted hardware and software updates to facilities like air traffic control towers and floated a new flight management system to include electric air taxis, known as eVTOLs, which he said have sometimes been called “Ubers in the air.”
“All new hardware, all new software is going to be built into this brand new air traffic control system, and some of you might say, ‘Well, how are you going to do that in any reasonable amount of time?’” the secretary asked.
“I’ve told you we’re going to do this in three or four years,” he added. “I’m going to ask the Congress for up-front appropriations to give us all the money.”
Trump’s transportation head compared the plan to upgrading to a smartphone from a flip phone.
The head of the largest trade association for passenger and cargo planes cheered Duffy’s announcement.
“I’ve been holding up floppy disks and paper strips for about nine years now, and I wasn’t going to bring them, but yesterday the secretary encouraged me to bring them along,” Airlines for America CEO Nicholas Calio said.
“Here they are,” Calio said brandishing the antiquated tech. “People can never believe this, but here’s the good news: What’s happening here today is going to put these things out of business for good.”
“I want to thank Secretary Duffy for presenting a plan that begins to address a decades-long problem in the manner in which he’s attempting to do it because we’ve seen failure in the past,” he added. “This one will not.”
Airlines for America, in a separate statement called for an additional $18.5 billion in emergency supplemental funds over the next three years to speed up the overhaul.
