Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy calls for multi-billion dollar overhaul of failing air traffic control system by 2028

WASHINGTON — Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy unveiled a multi-billion dollar plan to overhaul the nation’s failing air traffic control system by 2028, following a deadly plane crash and thousands of radar and communications outages horrifying officials, lawmakers and passengers alike.“This is bold, this is gonna be challenging, but we absolutely can do it,” Duffy declared of the plans for a state-of-the-art system to replace the archaic technology causing some hair-raising emergencies and more and more flight delays and cancellations.Duffy’s plan calls for at least six new air traffic control centers replacing 1960s-era facilities, swapping out old-fashioned copper wiring with fiber-optic, wireless and satellite technologies at 4,600 locations and replacing 25,000 radios as well as 618 outdated radars to stop the alarming near-misses from the up to 50,000 daily flights at US airports.Though the Department of Transportation plan didn’t specifically outline the levels of funding, the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee has already floated a proposal for the air traffic control system’s transition that amounts to $12.5 billion.Duffy’s already hinted at the plan costing “tens of billions” of dollars.The Trump administration has also put in a $4 billion initial budgetary request for 2026 to update the technology and facilities.“We should be using fiber, but it’s copper.We use radar from the 1970s,” the transportation chief 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-sec...