America's Air Traffic System Still Runs on 1980s Equipment, and Upgrades Depend on Congress

Despite handling the most flights in the world, the United States' air traffic control systems still rely on 1980s-era computer equipment, lagging behind some global peers in improving technology and remaining prone to widespread failures, aviation experts say.

One example highlights the irony. It took Canada two years to replace paper flight strips with electronic ones in air traffic control towers, a simple transition to avoid cascading delays. In the United States, the same project has taken more than four decades, and it is still not complete.

A key difference, experts say, is funding. The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration relies on Congress to fund crucial upgrades, while other countries have privatized their air traffic control. That has meant more money, more consistently, to invest in improving systems in places like Canada and the European Union, both considered success stories in aviation management.

The F.A.A.'s issuing of a nationwide ground stop on Friday underscored America's aging infrastructure, which experts have warned for years is in urgent need of modernizing, and which critics say has been chronically underfunded.

For decades, U.S. air traffic communications have relied on a system that runs on analog copper wire, floppy disks and alphabetical keyboards so old that the F.A.A. has difficulty sourcing spare parts.

Speaking to reporters after the outage, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy echoed those concerns, describing an air traffic control system stuck in the past and demanding $50 billion from Congress to improve it.

"Canada and the European Union don't have to worry about the public purse," said John Gradek, an aviation management expert at McGill University. "They are masters of their own destiny."