US airline CEOs have swung behind United States Transportation Secretary Sean P Duffy and plans to overhaul the country's air traffic control systems focusing on four infrastructure components - communication, surveillance, automation, and facilities. The CEOs of American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, Southwest Airlines, and United Airlines have all endorsed the proposals.
"We shop on eBay to replace parts, to fix our equipment in the system that keeps you safe, keeps your family safe," Duffy said at a May 8 news conference in Washington DC where he detailed the proposed reforms.
"Decades of neglect have left us with an outdated system that is showing its age," he added. "Building this new system is an economic and national security necessity, and the time to fix it is now. The unprecedented coalition of support we’ve assembled, from labour to industry, is indicative of just how important it is to this administration to get done what no one else could."
His call to action an followed outage at New York Newark on April 28 that caused ATC computer screens to go dark for 60 to 90 seconds, reportedly caused by a damaged copper wire. Duffy said the failure of the back-up systems to kick in was an example of why systems need an overhaul.
Key upgrades under Duffy's plan, which will take up to four years and cost approximately USD30 billion to implement, include replacing old telecommunications facilities with new fibre, wireless and satellite technologies at over 4,600 sites; 25,000 new radios and 475 new voice switches; replacing 618 radars which have gone past their lifecycle; increasing the number of airports with Surface Awareness Initiative (SAI) to improve runway safety; building six new air traffic control centres and replacing towers and TRACONs; installing new modern hardware and software for all air traffic facilities to create a common platform system throughout towers, TRACONs and centres; and adding 174 new weather stations in Alaska.
"This proposal seeks to transform the United States’ air traffic control system from its antiquated system to a modern system capable of meeting the demands of today and the future," reads a US Department of Transportation document.
"I applaud Secretary Duffy for leading the development of a strong and urgently needed plan to modernise our nation’s ATC system," said Southwest CEO Bob Jordan. "Southwest Airlines is proud to support Secretary Duffy’s proposal."
"This is a unique and once in a lifetime opportunity for the aviation industry," said Delta CEO Ed Bastian. "I’m proud to lend my full support to the Secretary and members of Congress as they work to move this bold proposal into an actionable plan."
American Airlines CEO Robert Isom called Duffy's proposals a historic day for aviation. "I’ve been in the airline business a long time, and we’ve known for decades that our ATC system needs to be modernised," he said. "The plan put forward by President Trump and Secretary Duffy, the largest investment in air traffic control in modern history, is the best opportunity we’ve had in decades to do something about our outdated ATC infrastructure."
