Congressional Watchdog Calls for Urgent FAA Reforms to Modernize Air Traffic Control Systems

The watchdog warns that outdated air traffic systems pose safety risks and urges faster modernization and better oversight to manage growing demands.

A plane takes off behind the air traffic control tower at San Francisco International Airport in San Francisco, on Nov. 24, 2020. Jeff Chiu/AP Photo

A new federal watchdog report has raised concerns about the ability of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to manage the nation’s air traffic safely and efficiently because of its reliance on aging and potentially unsustainable air traffic control systems.

The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) issued a report titled “FAA Actions Are Urgently Needed to Modernize Aging Systems” in response to a system outage in 2023 that temporarily shut down national airspace and delayed thousands of flights.