Congress urged to shift billions to improve aging flight controls

Source: Roll Call

Posted October 8, 2024 at 5:00am


Aviation advocates are pushing Congress to modernize the nation’s air traffic control systems, blaming stagnant funding in part for the Federal Aviation Administration’s growing backlog of essential upgrades. According to a government watchdog report, the FAA determined that 105 of the 138 systems were either unsustainable or potentially unsustainable.

More than half of those — 58 systems, including elements of a long-delayed overhaul that would add more satellite and digital communications technology to overall operations — have “critical operational impacts” on the safety and efficiency of the national airspace. Although the agency has programs aimed to modernize many of the 105 questionable systems, it has still been slow to address the most critical ones, the Government Accountability Office found in the report, released last month.

Some modernization projects are estimated to take as many as 13 years to complete, and four systems lack the sustained funding needed to finish the job, it said. When asked about the backlog in a September committee hearing, FAA Administrator Mike Whitaker said FAA facilities have been “somewhat famously underfunded” over the years. The agency is facing a $5.2 billion shortfall to merely sustain some operations, according to the White House budget.

“We have 21 centers that control high-altitude aircraft. Those were designed to be a maximum life of 50 years,” he told the House Transportation and Infrastructure Aviation Subcommittee. “They’re now on average between 60 and 70 years old. … It’s a fairly heavy lift financially.”

Read more: https://rollcall.com/2024/10/08/congress-urged-to-shift-billions-to-improve-aging-flight-controls/