By David Shepardson
WASHINGTON, July 15 (Reuters) – The U.S. aviation sector urged Congress on Wednesday to provide $20 billion to complete a massive effort to modernize America’s aging air traffic control system and reduce systemic flight disruptions.
An aviation coalition including airlines, airplane manufacturers, airports, unions and others said the $20 billion is needed to replace or upgrade hundreds of aging air traffic control facilities, deploy state-of-the-art technologies for controllers and to develop advanced airspace traffic management tools to improve safety and reduce delays.
Last year, Congress awarded $12.5 billion for the project to replace outdated technology and boost understaffed air traffic control towers. Much of the new proposed spending is to develop new software that could help make air travel much more efficient.
“Our nation’s aviation system is a key national asset, but it is under increasing strain,” said the letter signed by Boeing, Airbus, Airlines for America, the U.S. Travel Association, Air Pilots Association and dozens of others.
U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy told Reuters in April he was seeking $10 billion for the next phase, after the U.S. Department of Transportation initially sought about $19 billion from Congress. Duffy said he hoped to get the rest later.
Republican Senator Jerry Moran said on Wednesday Congress could give more money for the project in a funding bill later this year.
The FAA’s air traffic telecom system has been hit by a series of failures, including serious outages covering Newark airport traffic last year. The initial $12.5 billion followed decades of complaints over airport congestion and flight delays due in large part to creaky technology and understaffed towers.
A 2023 report said the FAA’s communications system has been outdated for years and it can no longer get spare parts for many systems. Of the FAA’s 138 air traffic control telecoms systems, 51 were unsustainable, a separate report said.
The FAA said by the end of 2028, airports will have 5,000 new high-speed network connections on fiber, satellite and wireless, 27,000 new radios and 612 state-of-the-art radars.
(Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Chris Reese and Nia Williams)
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