Federal News Network
Jared Serbu
31 Dec 2025
The agency expects to spend more than $6 billion this year to lay the groundwork for a complete overhaul of the rapidly aging air traffic control system.
The Federal Aviation Administration has been working to update its aging air traffic control system, literally, for decades now. But 2026 is looking to be a big year on the FAA modernization front. The One Big Beautiful Bill Congress passed earlier this year puts more than $12 billion toward air traffic control modernization, and the FAA’s new administrator expects to obligate about half of that by the end of this fiscal year.
The agency is on an aggressive schedule to completely replace the air traffic control system within the next three years, and the billions of dollars in reconciliation funding targeted for expenditure in fiscal 2026 is meant to lay the foundation for that long-term plan. The agency says it is using the funds to modernize its telecommunications and air surveillance systems, including by replacing aging copper circuits with fiber optics.
