Duffy Floats $50 Billion Price Tag For Congress To Prevent Repeat Paralysis Of US Air Travel

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy is asking Congress for $50 billion to upgrade US air traffic control systems, saying the funding could help prevent a repeat of a nationwide flight disruption. The request follows an FAA outage that led officials to halt departing flights across the country, renewing scrutiny of the reliability of aviation systems.

Duffy said the outage occurred during a contractor’s routine change from copper to fibre wiring, but the cause has not been determined; he said investigators are considering installation error, user error or a faulty router. He said Congress had provided $12.5 billion and listed upgrades already made, including replacing 69% of copper wiring and modernising 469 radio sites. Duffy’s request rose from $30 billion to $50 billion, drawing criticism from both parties, while New York Governor Kathy Hochul called for him to resign.