U.S. Department of Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy
during a Tuesday speech in Washington said that he would ask Congress to
approve an additional $30 billion in funding for air traffic control towers,
software and digital upgrades and improving airport facilities, according
to a Reuters report.
The comments came one day after the Northeast suffered a telecom
outage that caused ground stops at airports in Philadelphia, Newark and
Teterboro, N.J., as well as significant delays at LaGuardia Airport and John F.
Kennedy International Airport in New York.
On Monday, Newark Liberty International Airport canceled 55
percent of departing flights and 49 percent of arriving flights, while delays
affected 13 percent of departures and 10 percent of arrivals, according to
aviation tracker FlightAware. In Philadelphia, 23 percent of departures and 20
percent of arrivals were canceled, while about 43 percent and 37 percent,
respectively, were delayed. Newark is a United Airlines hub, and Philadelphia
is an American Airlines hub.
About $10 billion of the request is dedicated to replacing
aging air traffic control towers, with another $10 billion for telecom and
other tech systems used by air traffic control and $10 billion for airports,
including runways, according to a Reuters
reporter's post on X, to which DOT directed BTN following a request for
additional detail.
Part of the request would be used to expand a software-based
system—the Strategic Management of Airspace, Routes and Trajectories tool—the
Federal Aviation Administration began using on Monday. It centralizes 200 data
streams, including weather patterns, flight paths, traffic flow and controller
staffing metrics, into one platform.
Congress
in July 2025 approved $12.5 billion for DOT to improve the country's air
traffic control system, with funds to be available through Sept. 30, 2029. That
funding amount was approved about two months after multiple outages affected
Newark and caused United to temporarily
reduce its schedule at the airport by 35 flights per day and the FAA to temporarily
reduce
hourly flight movements.