Watchdog Cites Safety, ATC Updates as Top FAA Challenges

A government watchdog this week cited aviation safety and air traffic control modernization as two of the top management challenges confronting the FAA. The Department of Transportation Inspector General (DOT IG) releases a list of top management challenges facing the various agencies within the department every year, evaluating safety impacts, established vulnerabilities, fiscal accountability, and the DOT’s ability to effect change, it said.

Safety was a common theme among all of the transportation modes, and for the FAA, the DOT IG pointed to recent aviation accidents, runway incursions, mechanical failures, and the Jan. 29, 2025 midair collision in Washington, D.C. These events, it said, “continue to keep serious safety concerns at the forefront.” 

Addressing these concerns will depend in part on the FAA’s ability to address ATC and airspace modernization and improve staffing shortages.

In addition, the FAA must balance compliance with collaboration in its oversight responsibilities. “[The] FAA’s approach to compliance stresses a collaborative problem-solving strategy with the goal of achieving rapid compliance with regulations, eliminating safety risks, and fostering permanent change,” the DOT IG noted. “However, as we have reported in multiple audits of FAA’s oversight of air carrier maintenance programs, the recurrence of complex safety issues suggests that inspectors face challenges with identifying and addressing systemic hazards. When FAA inspectors do not consistently analyze historical data to identify repeat noncompliance, they miss opportunities to address root causes and prevent recurrence.”

It cited as an example maintenance inspectors at the FAA’s SkyWest Certificate Management Office (CMO) who did not always adhere to FAA guidance in addressing noncompliance. “Such non-standard practices can cause confusion at the air carrier regarding the seriousness of the identified risks.” Exacerbating this is the loss of managers, which in turn depletes institutional knowledge.

On the ATC side, the DOT IG noted longstanding challenges in adequate controller staffing at the most critical facilities; studies have shown that 19 of the busiest ATC facilities that serve the FAA’s core 30 airports are more than 15% below the FAA’s staffing targets. Hiring and training additional controllers “will be essential to curbing flight delays and cancellations and sustaining the integrity of the NAS,” the watchdog said. It recognized efforts on this front, such as the FAA’s Enhanced Air Traffic-Collegiate Training Initiative and plans for monetary incentives.

At the same time, the agency is grappling with the integrity of the ATC infrastructure. The DOT IG cited the 90-second blackout of radar and radio contact with air traffic that occurred in April 2025 due to a burnt copper wire, followed by another 90-second outage a month later, due to failures of both primary and redundant communication infrastructure. “Investing in technology and redundant infrastructure across the NAS will be key to prevent further occurrences like these and maintain NAS integrity,” the agency said.

It noted the DOT’s plans to install a new air traffic control system, ambitions that will require some $31.5 billion through 2028. This is taking place as the FAA is terminating its Office of the Next Generation Air Transportation System (NextGen), which oversaw the Agency’s prior multi-decade, multibillion-dollar modernization efforts. “Our multiple reports identified various challenges to NextGen’s implementation that led to cost increases, schedule overruns, and delayed or reduced benefits and capabilities.”

The watchdog warned that the FAA has yet to unveil a plan to anticipate and mitigate implementation challenges. “Since 2013, we have reported several underlying causes for FAA’s difficulties in advancing NextGen, including the lack of an executable plan and unresolved critical design decisions regarding implementation costs and how technologies would be developed or integrated,” the DOT IG said. “To avoid these longstanding challenges that delayed NextGen, FAA will need a comprehensive…plan that also addresses the potential impact of external factors beyond the agency’s control, such as inflation and supply chain challenges.”