Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy has made aggressive moves for the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to resolve the nation's critical air traffic controller shortage, but outdated equipment has long compounded problems with ensuring air travel safety.
Flight disruptions at Newark Liberty International Airport this week have illustrated the link between failures of outdated technology and a shortage of available air traffic controllers.
"Controller staffing and infrastructure progress are inextricably linked," National Air Traffic Controllers Association (NATCA) President Nick Daniels warned lawmakers during a congressional hearing in March. "A properly staffed workforce of fully certified controllers is needed for the FAA to successfully develop, test, deploy and train the workforce on new technology and modernization programs on time and under budget."
House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman Rep. Sam Graves (R-Mo.) released a budget proposal last week that includes $15 billion to modernize air traffic control (ATC) systems.
"Our nation’s air traffic control system is outdated, and it must be modernized for the benefit and safety of all users of the National Airspace System," Graves said during the March hearing where Daniels also addressed the issue. "While this issue has been thrust back into the spotlight following a string of tragic accidents, this is not a new debate."
What's happening?
The air traffic controller staffing shortage has drawn intense interest after a series of crashes and near misses at airports, including the deadly midair collision near Reagan Washington National Airport in late January.
Duffy announced in February that he would "supercharge" controller staffing, noting the shortages he saw just weeks after the Senate confirmed him for the top transportation role.
But it can take months to get new controllers on board and train existing workers to use new procedures and technology across multiple complex systems, including navigation, weather, surveillance and communications.
"Air traffic controllers, with their unique skill and precision, are the backbone of the (National Air System) and require rigorous training, a mastery of complex systems, and the ability to perform under immense pressure," Daniels told legislators earlier this year.
"These dedicated professionals continue to work short-staffed, often six days-a-week, ten hours-a-day for years at a time, using outdated equipment and in run-down facilities that are in many cases more than 60 years old and are long overdue to be modernized and/or replaced," he added at the time.
Outdated technology also has compounded the stress on the smaller workforce.
Delays and cancellations upended operations at Newark, a major hub near New York City, this week, after nearly 20 percent of the site's controllers took leaves of absence following a potentially catastrophic blackout and communication breakdown with planes flying into the airport on April 28.
"Frequent equipment and telecommunications outages can be stressful for controllers," the FAA acknowledged in a statement Monday, noting airport employees had taken time off to "recover from the stress of multiple recent outages."
How did it get like this?
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) reported this year that more than 75 percent of the FAA's 138 air traffic control (ATC) systems were deemed "unsustainable" or "potentially unsustainable" in a review prompted by technological issues that led to a 2023 shutdown of all U.S. airspace.
"FAA's progress has also been slow, taking years to establish cost, schedule and performance baselines for investments that GAO selected for its review," the independent watchdog reported. "As of May 2024, completion dates for planned investments for systems that GAO deemed especially concerning were at least 6 to 10 years away. Four such systems did not have associated investments."
Daniels also told lawmakers that the FAA in the past two decades has not requested funding the agency "truly needs to adequately address its technological and physical infrastructure needs."
The FAA's $3 billion annual request for facilities and equipment, the NATCA president said, has forced the agency into a "fix-on-fail" model that prioritizes mandatory costs with "little to no money" left for modernization programs.
"Failing to maintain and replace critical safety equipment that has exceeded its expected life introduces unnecessary risk into the system," the union leader added. "These funding limitations also have prevented the FAA from designing and implementing new technologies that will improve safety."
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