Duffy Lays Out Sweeping ATC Modernization Plan

Project calls for the construction of six new centers and 15 towers.

Zach Vasile

Thursday, May 08, 2025 at 03:42 PM ET

Verified

Edited By:

Travis Tingle

An air traffic control tower at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York. [Shutterstock]

Key Takeaways:

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy announced an ambitious plan to completely overhaul the outdated U.S. air traffic control (ATC) system, stating the current infrastructure is "not worth saving."
The modernization effort, targeted for completion by 2028, will replace decades-old technology (e.g., floppy disks, time-division multiplexing) with state-of-the-art telecommunications, radios, surveillance, and automation.
The plan also includes significant infrastructure development, such as building six new ATC centers and 15 towers with colocated TRACONs, representing the largest construction project of its kind since the 1960s.
This initiative, which seeks full upfront funding from Congress and has broad support from airlines, industry groups, and unions, is a separate but related effort to addressing the ongoing chronic shortage of FAA air traffic controllers.

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With Newark Liberty International Airport (KEWR) still recovering from a 90-second air traffic control blackout that left pilots in the dark, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy laid out plans to modernize the entire country’s ATC system and build new centers and towers.

“The system we have here is not worth saving,” Duffy said at a press conference Thursday. “I don’t need to preserve any of this, it’s too old. You have a 1960s Volkswagen Beetle you’re using for transportation. I don’t want to use the Beetle, I want a brand-new car. And that’s what we’re building, a brand new car.”