Industry Insights
America’s ATC Overhaul is Just Getting Started
July 08, 2025
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy is right –$12.5 billion in funding for air traffic control overhaul is just the beginning.
“This is not enough money. We’re going to need more,” Secretary Duffy said in a Cabinet Meeting with President Trump on Tuesday. “But this is a massive new start, the biggest investment. We’ll need some more money on top of it, but a great start from the Big Beautiful Bill.”
U.S. airlines are deeply appreciative of President Trump and Secretary Duffy’s commitment to revamping our nation’s ATC system. The $12.5 billion granted from the One Big Beautiful Bill is a critical down-payment as we cannot continue to rely on paper strips, floppy disks and 1950s-era radar running our airspace.
Upgrading our nation’s ATC system will ensure the U.S. remains the gold standard of aviation safety for decades to come.
“What the money is going to allow us to do is move from copper to fiber all over the country,” Secretary Duffy said. “We have radar that dates back to the 1950s, some of it from the 60s and 70s. We get brand new radar across the country as well.”
U.S. airlines are committed to continuing to collaborate with lawmakers and industry stakeholders to achieve the Trump Administration’s vision of overhauling the U.S. air traffic control system from obsolete and antiquated equipment to 21st-century technology.
This massive project cannot come soon enough as U.S. airlines see record passenger volumes. The TSA recently reported its busiest day in history, screening nearly 3.1 million travelers on June 22. Additionally, the agency recorded seven of its busiest days in history this year – June 22, July 6, May 23, June 27, June 19, May 22 and June 29 – with each day seeing more than 2.9 million passengers screened.