(NewsNation) — The head of the Federal Aviation Administration says the agency needs an additional $20 billion to overhaul the nation’s outdated air traffic control system — on top of the $12.5 billion Congress has already approved.
The request comes as a new report finds the FAA is massively behind schedule in implementing a decades-old plan to rejuvenate the air transportation system.
The FAA says the nation’s air traffic control system is outdated and increasingly fragile, with roughly half of the funding approved by Congress already spent on basic repairs rather than the complete modernization.
FAA administrator Bryan Bedford told lawmakers Tuesday the agency plans to commit $6 billion by the end of the year to upgrade radar surveillance systems and telecom infrastructure.
That figure represents about half of the $12.5 billion already allocated. The administration says at least another $20 billion is needed to complete the overhaul.
“We’ve adopted a mantra of ‘think slow, move fast,'” Beford said. “Understanding what the end state of modernization needs to look like, and then determining how best to plot a course to get there, as opposed to just let’s go out and spend money.”
Report: 2003 modernization plan only 16% complete
According to a Reuters report citing a Transportation Department’s Office of Inspector General audit in October, the FAA remains significantly behind on its 2003 air traffic modernization effort known as “NextGen.” As of last December, the agency had achieved just 16% of the program’s expected benefits.
Several key objectives of the broader $36 billion effort have been delayed until at least 2030, despite the FAA shuttering NextGen offices earlier this year.
Of the FAA’s 138 air traffic control telecommunications systems, 51 were deemed unsustainable, while another 54 were considered potentially unsustainable, according to a report from the Government Accountability Office.
The $15 billion NextGen project, launched more than two decades ago, has faced repeated delays and cost overruns and has been scaled back from its original goals, the Office of Inspector General audit revealed.
Despite these setbacks, the FAA says it is committed to applying lessons learned from NextGen’s missteps as it launches a new modernization effort, which the agency says will take until at least 2028 to complete.
Airports bracing for holiday rush
These congressional hearings won’t instantly fix delays or disruptions. Still, the FAA says the goal is to prevent the cascading failures seen in the past, when a single technical issue snarled the entire system.
U.S. airlines expect a record 52.6 million passengers to fly between Friday and Jan. 5 — about 2.9 million travelers per day — putting the air traffic system under significant stress.
For passengers, that means planning ahead and packing plenty of patience.