A federal watchdog raised concerns about the Federal Aviation Administration’s air traffic controller systems, saying that many are critically outdated and that the agency’s heavy reliance on them could jeopardize the safety and efficiency of the nation’s airspace.
A Government Accountability Office evaluation of the F.A.A.’s 138 air traffic controller systems found that 51 are considered unsustainable, while another 54 are deemed potentially unsustainable, according to a report released on Monday.
The accountability office said many of those systems “have critical operational impacts” on air traffic safety and efficiency. Many of them are also facing “challenges that are historically problematic for aging systems,” according to the report.
“These challenges,” it added, “include no longer meeting mission needs, difficulty finding spare parts and limited technical staff with expertise in repairing the aging system.”
The F.A.A. did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The accountability office’s examination was prompted by a severe systems outage in January 2023 that resulted in thousands of flights across the country being grounded. The F.A.A.’s Notice to Air Missions system provides critical information to pilots about hazards like runway closures and airspace restrictions. The outage was determined to have been caused by contract personnel unintentionally deleting files while working on the system.
While the F.A.A. is trying to update these systems, the report found that some could take more than 10 years to modernize.
The agency has long faced criticism for not upgrading its technological systems quickly enough. More than two decades ago, Congress initiated a major overhaul of the national aviation system, known as the Next Generation Air Transportation System, or NextGen. This multibillion-dollar project aims to enable airlines to operate more flights and update some of the F.A.A.’s aging technology, but it has been plagued by problems and has taken longer than expected.
The report follows similar findings in previous years regarding the agency’s ability to modernize the nation’s air traffic control system. Reports released in 2016 and 2019 raised concerns about the increasing number of aging F.A.A. systems, many of which rely on outdated software languages and unsupported hardware. The accountability office previously found that some F.A.A. systems contained components that were over 50 years old.
Paul Rinaldi, the former president of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association, the controllers’ union, said the issues facing the F.A.A. stemmed from funding problems and poor project management on the agency’s part. As a result, he said, the United States is using outdated technology compared with other countries, resulting in increasing outages, delays and cancellations.
The situation is frustrating because there seems to be a lack of willingness to address and fix the systemic problems, he said.
“If it doesn’t get fixed, you end up with a system that’s slowly but surely becoming unreliable,” Mr. Rinaldi said. “It’s beyond frustrating to watch the system deteriorating right in front of us.”
The F.A.A. has not outlined clear plans for urgently needed updates, especially for those systems deemed critical to safety, the report said. Starting in 2026, a new law will require the agency to report to Congress on its strategies for addressing those legacy systems. But until then, Congress may lack essential information about how the F.A.A. is managing those risks.
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