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- The FAA will spend $6 billion to upgrade US air traffic control infrastructure by 2028.
- Recent outages and shutdowns exposed the fragility of the aging air traffic control system.
- Congress approved $12.5 billion, but the FAA may need another $19 billion.
Billions of dollars are about to be spent on upgrading the country's air traffic control system, according to the boss of the Federal Aviation Administration.
The FAA is committing $6 billion on ATC telecom and radar infrastructure, Administrator Bryan Bedford told a House subcommittee on Tuesday.
The new infrastructure is set to be deployed by the end of 2028, down from a previously planned timescale of 15 years, Bedford said.
It comes after incidents this year have highlighted the fragility and age of the current system.
However, while Congress has so far approved $12.5 billion to upgrade the air traffic control system, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy has said it will cost $31.5 billion overall.
Passengers around the country have faced disruption this year due to the aging ATC system.
In April and May, several communications outages occurred at a control center that guides planes in and out of Newark Liberty International Airport.
Radar displays briefly went offline, so the FAA had to slow arrival and departure rates. The airport has also been dealing with runway construction.
At one point, Newark was limited to an hourly rate of 34 departures and arrivals, less than half the number it typically handled.
The government shutdown in the fall further exposed the fragility of the ATC system.
Controllers were among the federal workers who were told they had to keep working without a paycheck. As the shutdown dragged on, fewer and fewer controllers turned up for work.
In California, Hollywood Burbank Airport's control tower was left unstaffed for about six hours one day.
Eventually, the FAA had to mandate flight cuts at 40 of the country's busiest airports due to staffing shortages.
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