Amid soaring demand for air travel, the country’s air traffic control systems urgently need an upgrade, according to a new report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office.

A majority of the Federal Aviation Administration’s 138 information systems are underfunded, short on capability or could be soon, putting the safety and efficiency of the national airspace at risk, the report says.

What You Need To Know

  • The country’s air traffic control systems urgently need an upgrade, according to a new report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office

  • A majority of the Federal Aviation Administration’s 138 information systems are underfunded, short on capability or could be soon, putting the safety and efficiency of the national airspace at risk

  • The FAA oversees 50,000 flights daily but has been struggling with outdated systems, parts availability and growing demand for its services

  • Six systems the GAO flagged for modernization were deployed 60 years ago

“The agency has been slow to modernize the most critical and at-risk systems,” the report found, despite the FAA’s investments to modernize dozens of outdated systems.

Per the watchdog, six systems the GAO flagged for modernization were deployed 60 years ago, and another 40 were put in place 30 years ago. The report found 17 systems “especially concerning” because modernization would not be complete for at least six years and possibly not until 2037. 

“In addition, FAA does not have ongoing investments associated with four of these critical systems and thus it is unknown when the associated systems will be modernized,” the report said. 

The FAA oversees 50,000 flights daily but has been struggling with outdated systems, parts availability and growing demand for its services. The agency expects air travel to increase 6.2% annually.

The GAO report is based on an operational risk assessment the FAA conducted in 2023, after the agency’s aging air traffic control system unexpectedly went down. The incident prompted the FAA to shut down the national airspace for a day in January last year, delaying almost 33,000 flights and canceling 409 others.

It was the first time since September 11, 2011, the FAA had ordered a nationwide ground stop. The FAA’s investigation determined the outage happened during routine maintenance when a worker unintentionally deleted some data files.

Saying the FAA had not provided consistent oversight of its modernization investments and how those investments would improve their functionality, the GAO recommends the FAA report to Congress on how it is mitigating the risks of its most critical systems.

The news comes as the FAA reported it had exceeded its hiring goals for air traffic controllers this year. The agency has hired 1,811 air traffic controllers for the 2024 fiscal year — the largest number in almost a decade.

In a statement, the FAA said it was an important milestone in reversing a decades-long trend of declining air traffic controller staffing levels.