Duffy asks Congress to fund $30 billion effort to modernize air traffic control system

The Transportation Department and Federal Aviation Administration are pleading with Congress to fund a $30 billion project to finish modernizing the nation’s air traffic control system and, in turn, address flight delays and cancellations.Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy and FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford announced the introduction of the Modern Skies Act at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport on Monday afternoon. Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-MO) debuted the bill and is leading the effort on Capitol Hill, which Duffy called the “most bipartisan effort in Washington.”“Think about: Nearly a billion people travel our skies in the United States this year, nearly 18 million flights operating in the country, and then think about the demand to increase that over the next 10, 20 years,” Bedford said. “We have got to do this. This really isn’t a choice. This is an investment. It’ll have a significant return on investment because air transportation is roughly 6-7% of our gross domestic product.” The Modern Skies Act includes $10 billion for tower replacement projects and ground facilities, $10 billion for upgrading telecommunications architecture and digitizing analog systems, and another $10 billion for general airport infrastructure and expanding software systems.“A lot of our towers, many of them were built in the 1960s and ’70s. … We have air traffic controllers who are working in towers where the roofs leak,” Bedford said. “I’ve been in some where the toilets are leaking down to the break room, where the controllers are below. Sometimes the elevators don’t work, and by the way, towers are pretty high up in the air, so they get a little sweaty.”Overhauling the system would also lead to billions of dollars in savings in the long run, possibly $300 billion over the next 20 years, according to Bedford.The legislation follows $12.5 billion that Congress initially put forward for the project last year.With that funding, the FAA has begun to replace infrastructure, including radar, software, hardware, and telecommunications, through more than 10,000 projects nationwide, all of which are being tracked.More than 60% of the nation’s legacy copper telecommunications lines have been replaced with high-speed fiber-optic and wireless infrastructure. Manual buttons and analog patch boards are being replaced with digital communications and switches, according to the government’s Modern Skies website that tracks the progress of projects.“Across the country, we’ve deployed radar, radios, voice switches, surface awareness systems,” Duffy said. “We’re transitioning from old copper wires to fiber, high-speed fiber. All things that have been talked about but never been done that we are actually doing right now.”Nick Daniels, the president of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association, said the funding that Congress gave the FAA in 2025 began the changes, which have led to “meaningful progress.”“Controllers are ready for modernization,” Daniels said. “We want the tools, systems, the infrastructure that will allow us to do our jobs at the highest level and continue providing the safe, efficient service that the American flying public deserves.”Commercial air travel has soared to all-time high levels of nearly 3 million passengers per day since the pandemic, according to the Transportation Security Administration. The FAA has struggled to maintain enough air traffic controllers and to operate using antiquated flight-tracking systems and ground infrastructure amid a series of high-profile aviation incidents, all as more people choose air travel year over year.Air travel problems have become increasingly visible to the traveling public, with frequent flight delays and cancellations. One in 12 flights was delayed more than an hour last year, making 2025 the year with the worst on-time performance in more than a decade, according to DOT data reviewed by the nonprofit Public Interest Research Group.In an interview at the DOT’s Washington headquarters in August, Bedford laid out how the Trump administration was fulfilling the agency’s decadeslong wish to modernize air travel by implementing more than 10,000 changes before Trump leaves office.AIR TRAFFIC CONTROLLERS TURN ON FAA CHIEF AS TENSIONS BOIL OVERAlthough the $12.5 billion Congress allotted to the first part of the project also includes hiring more air traffic controllers, some who contacted the Washington Examiner following the Bedford interview said the agency was dramatically short-staffed without a way to make up for a coming wave of employee departures in 2028.Groups that support the funding request include the NATCA, Airlines for America, Association of Value Airlines, Air Line Pilots Association, American Association of Airport Executives, and General Aviation Manufacturers Association. Trump has also backed the plan.