Earlier this year, chronic flight delays and cancellations at Newark Liberty International Airport revealed a litany of problems with antiquated air traffic control systems. Today, those problems persist and are even more illuminated thanks to the government shutdown. For one, the Hollywood Burbank Airport air traffic control tower was left unmanned for hours this week due to the shutdown. CNN also reported Tuesday 12 Federal Aviation Administration facilities had staffing shortages Monday night.
Even Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy admitted earlier this year some of the decades-old computer equipment air traffic controllers use looks like it came off the set of Apollo 13, and compared it to a 1967 Volkswagen Beetle.
Delta CEO Ed Bastian also revealed that, due to aging air traffic control systems, it actually takes longer today to fly from Atlanta to LaGuardia than it did in the 1950s when the airline opened that route.
“That’s the air traffic control system. It’s very slow. It’s congested,” Bastian told TODAY in May. “If you modernize the skies, you can kind of bring greater efficiency.”
By modernizing the skies, Bastian means using satellite technology, the latest state-of-the-art equipment, and GPS. But currently, air traffic controllers have to use a radar point-and-shoot system from the 1960s.
