US President Donald Trump has named IBM and Raytheon Technologies among the five firms under consideration for modernising the US air traffic control system, a report claims. The push to upgrade the country’s ageing control infrastructure intensified after a mid-air collision in January near Washington Reagan National Airport. In this crash, a US Army helicopter and an American Airlines jet collided, killing all 67 people aboard. Meanwhile, the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee are also reportedly considering a $12.5 billion proposal, spread through 2029, to replace control towers, radar systems, and telecommunications networks, plus an additional $1 billion in funding for hiring new air traffic controllers.
What Donald Trump said about modernising the US air traffic control system
According to a report by the news agency Reuters, during a cabinet meeting at the White House, Trump listed five companies that could do the work.
“We have very obsolete equipment for air traffic control. We want to put a brand new air traffic control system in,” Trump said.
Last month, US Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy announced plans to request tens of billions of dollars from Congress for a multi-year overhaul of the Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) air traffic control infrastructure and a significant increase in hiring. Earlier, he had even slammed Verizon for “not moving fast enough” under its $2.4 billion, 15-year telecom contract with the FAA.
In March, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk’s Starlink unit denied that it sought to take over Verizon’s FAA contract. Meanwhile, Verizon said that it is collaborating with the FAA to develop solutions for a more advanced and safer national air traffic control system.
The US Government Accountability Office has also warned that one-third of the FAA’s air traffic control systems are “unsustainable,” with 25% of facilities over 50 years old.
Ageing equipment has caused repeated delays, including a major outage at Newark Liberty International, and chronic staffing shortages.
The report claims that the FAA is roughly 3,500 controllers below its target, forcing many existing controllers into mandatory overtime and six-day workweeks.