DOT Secretary Sean Duffy is asking Congress for an additional $30 billion to fund the agency’s air traffic control modernization effort, according to Reuters.
Congress allocated $12.5 billion toward the program in 2025 under the Brand New ATC System initiative, known as BNATCS. Duffy’s new request would bring the total funding sought to $42.5 billion.
The push comes as the modernization effort faces cost and schedule concerns, though the source material does not detail the specific nature of those issues.
For crew, the scale of this request signals that the administration is treating ATC infrastructure as a long-term capital project rather than an incremental upgrade. The size and pace of any actual system changes will ultimately depend on what Congress appropriates.
