FAA Aims to Boost Hiring of Air-Traffic Controllers and Update Its Technology

U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said the federal government would take steps to hire more air-traffic controllers and spend billions of dollars to upgrade the nation’s aviation system. Duffy said he would ask Congress to fund upgrades to the technology underpinning the nation’s air-traffic control system, pointing to its reliance on decades-old copper wire, floppy disks and phone jacks. Duffy said he hadn’t made a decision about whether to use the Starlink satellite communications system to improve air-traffic-control technology. The FAA has been testing Starlink, owned by Elon Musk’s SpaceX, in New Jersey and Alaska. Musk, on his X social-media platform, said Thursday he was providing Starlink terminals at no cost to taxpayers on an “emergency basis to restore air traffic control connectivity.”