Modern Skies Coalition Urges $20B More for ATC Upgrades

More funds are needed for the Brand-New Air Traffic Control System (BNATCS) initiative, say members of the Modern Skies Coalition. In a joint letter, founding coalition member AOPA and more than 50 other aviation organizations wrote congressional leaders requesting an additional $20 billion for upgrades.

The letter noted that controllers currently rely on different automation platforms depending on the airspace, and that the FAA has spent hundreds of millions of dollars on required “refreshes” of aging systems developed decades ago. A new common automation platform is estimated to cost $10 billion.

“Modernizing our nation’s ATC system is a national imperative,” the coalition told House Speaker Mike Johnson, House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries, Senate majority leader John Thune, and Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer. The requested funds would build on the $12.5 billion “down payment” Congress approved last year and would support replacement of aging platforms used by controllers.

The coalition cited progress made over the past year, including replacement of more than half of the system’s copper wiring with fiber optics, deployment of electronic flight strips and surface awareness detection technology, the conversion of analog voice switches and radios to digital systems, and contracts for replacing hundreds of aging radars. The FAA has also published a public Modern Skies dashboard tracking project status.