Trump official seeks $50 billion for air traffic control after outage
Trump official seeks $50 billion for air traffic control after outage
By David Shepardson
WASHINGTON, Nov 13 (Reuters) – The Trump administration boosted its request for air traffic control funding to $50 billion late Friday after a communications issue forced a nationwide groundstop that halted thousands of flights for hours.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy and the White House earlier on Friday asked for $30.1 billion to upgrade the United States’ aging airports and air traffic control system.
“This is an emergency,” Duffy said. “What’s more important than having an air traffic control system that actually works?”
The issue impacted the FAA’s en route centers that handle traffic between airports. But the Republican-led Senate Commerce Committee said the incident highlights the need to prioritize modernizing those centers over other projects and noted Congress approved $1.9 billion to replace outdated en route centers.
The world’s most complex airspace has experienced a series of events in recent years that have disrupted flights and risked safety. In January 2025, a midair collision at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport killed 67 people.
Congress already approved $12.5 billion over five years in July 2025 to upgrade air traffic control and increase the hiring of controllers following complaints about airport congestion, flight delays and technology problems.
The request from White House Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought and Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy seeks $10.1 billion for air traffic control modernization, including $7.2 billion for a common automation platform and controller workstations and $2 billion for cloud computing.
“This investment is critical to complete the modernization of our national airspace – delivering a resilient telecommunications backbone for air traffic controllers, modern hardware and software, state-of-the-art control towers, and world-class airport infrastructure,” Duffy and Vought wrote to lawmakers asking for swift action.
Major airlines including American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, United Airlines and Southwest Airlines have expressed support for the request.
The $30.1 billion request also includes $2 billion to replace and improve Federal Aviation Administration air traffic control towers and $18 billion for airport-related projects including $10 billion to modernize or replace aging terminals.
The FAA relies on decades-old computers as well as replacement parts bought through auction websites. Last week, it said it would replace by the end of 2028 floppy disks used for weather and other critical information at more than 400 air traffic control facilities.
Vought and Duffy in their letter said the FAA has replaced 68% of legacy copper telecommunications network with high-speed fiber infrastructure.
The administration has called for the Republican-led Congress to approve funding in the final weeks of the year. Democrats are set to take control of Congress in January.
In September, the dual failures of a circuit at a Philadelphia air traffic facility and the accidental severing of a fiber-optic cable in New Jersey by a construction crew led to thousands of flights across the densely populated Northeast being delayed or canceled.
(Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Christopher Cushing and Shri Navaratnam)
US officials say the disruption was caused by old equipment overloading and not a cyber-attack.
The prime minister will pledge to “do things differently” at the Welsh Labour conference on Saturday.
Efforts to address the underlying problem with Outlook, Teams and Copilot are complete, the tech firm says.
“Socialism,” once considered a scarlet letter in the United States, is growing increasingly buzzy and mainstream as a slate of politicians embracing the label have gained significant ground.Yet polls show a rising acceptance of socialism in the United States, a quintessentially capitalist country where politicians have long conflated the term with communism to vilify it.
The incident, which lasted about four hours, was the longest in the country since the one after 11 September 2001.
A university pauses recruitment amid a drop in learning disability nurses employed by the NHS.
Crews faced a “perfect storm” of challenges during the UK’s record-breaking weather, it’s claimed.
A Microsoft outage involving services like Outlook and Teams impacted many users, companies and government services.
A round-up of stories from local newspapers and the BBC from the past week in the West of England.
A plaque is unveiled close to the original AA run site near Aldermaston Wharf.
Vera Holland’s daughter says her family “feels the loss and heartbreak of losing her every day”.
Today marks World Diabetes Day and almost 6,000 people on the island are on the diabetes register.
Lancashire scientists are hoping to develop more tailored plans for people who struggle with migraines.
BUDAPEST, Nov 14 () – Hungarian authorities have recovered nearly $20 million in cash, some buried in forests or hidden in farm buildings and warehouses, in a bribery probe into Miklos Sesztak, a minister under former right-wing leader Viktor Orban. Prime Minister Peter Magyar ousted nationalist Orban after 16 years in power in an April election, pledging to mend ties with the European Union, marred by years of conflict under Orban, and to launch a sweeping anti-corruption drive into allegati
The porcelain, which was found at a house in Oxfordshire, go up for auction on Wednesday.
The team behind the Tyne Derwent Way are set to submit a scaled-down proposal for lottery funds.
The Thames path in Oxford had been shut near Donnington Bridge for urgent repairs since August.
A woman with Crohn’s disease says she has been denied access to facilities due to a lack of understanding.
Guernsey Retail Group says the opening could be a positive for other local independent shops.
A noise complaint means the chimes at St Margaret’s Church in Wolstanton are now silenced.
Powered by WPeMatico