By Anita Hamilton

Amid the backdrop of a fatal crash in January and recent travel chaos at Newark airport, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy announced a new "state of the art" air-traffic control system Thursday afternoon.

The new system, which is expected to take three to four years to build, will feature new telecommunications systems, new radios, and new ground radar. "We want to make sure air-traffic controllers have the tools to keep aircraft separated," Duffy said. "All front facing systems and back end systems will be brand new."

President Donald Trump, who joined the event by speaker phone, called it "the complete rebuilding and modernization of America's air-traffic control system." Referring to efforts to bring on new air-traffic controllers to ease the current 3,000-person shortage, he said, "we'll make sure the men and women who operate these systems are hired by merit."

In addition to building six new air-traffic control towers, the new technology will replace copper wires with fiber, wireless, and satellite technology at 4,600 sites, add 25,000 new radios and 475 new voice switches, and replace 618 outdated radars, among other upgrades.

"It's hard to believe, unacceptable, that many of the systems that air-traffic controllers rely on today are more than 60 years old," said Delta CEO Ed Bastian, who joined Duffy onstage, along with the CEOs of United, JetBlue, American, and Southwest.

A contractor for the system hasn't been named and the Transportation Secretary didn't specify its total cost, which is likely to run into the billions of dollars. However, Duffy said that he will need all the funding for it from Congress upfront.

"An aging system poses an untenable risk to safety," National Transportation Safety Board head Jennifer Homendy said at the event, which was also attended by families of some of the passengers who died in January in the fatal crash of an Army helicopter and a commercial jet near Reagan National Airport in Washington, D.C.

Write to Anita Hamilton at anita.hamilton@barrons.com

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May 08, 2025 15:26 ET (19:26 GMT)

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