GAO Report Urges Air Traffic Control Modernization

U.S. Government Accountability Office has identified 105 unsustainable or potentially unsustainable ATC systems.

Tuesday, March 04, 2025 at 03:56 PM ET

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The U.S. Government Accountability Office stated in its report that of the FAA’s 138 air traffic control systems, 51 were unsustainable and 54 were potentially unsustainable. [Credit: Shutterstock]

Key Takeaways:

The U.S. Governmental Accountability Office (GAO) has urged the FAA to modernize its aging air traffic control (ATC) systems following a 2023 outage that grounded flights nationwide.
An FAA operational risk assessment found that 76% of its 138 ATC systems are either unsustainable or potentially unsustainable, with many being decades old and posing critical operational risks.
Modernization efforts face significant challenges, including slow investment progress (with critical updates 6-10 years away or unfunded), difficulties due to unavailable parts, and a loss of expert technicians.

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The U.S. Governmental Accountability Office (GAO) published a report Tuesday urging the FAA to modernize systems for air traffic control (ATC).

The 17-page report was commissioned by GAO after an “aging” ATC system outage caused a shutdown of the national airspace in 2023. This prompted the FAA to conduct an operational risk assessment to evaluate the sustainability of all ATC systems.

Caleb Revill

Caleb Revill is a journalist, writer and lifelong learner working as a Junior Writer for Firecrown. When he isn't tackling breaking news, Caleb is on the lookout for fascinating feature stories.