The White House and Transportation Department urged Congress to approve $30.1 billion for airport and air traffic control upgrades, including $10.1 billion for air traffic modernization and $18 billion for airport projects.
The White House and Department of Transportation asked Congress to approve a further $30.1 billion to upgrade U.S. airports and air traffic control. The request includes $10.1 billion for air traffic control modernization, $2 billion to replace and improve FAA towers, and $18 billion for airport projects, including $10 billion to modernize or replace aging terminals.
The air traffic control funding includes $7.2 billion for a common automation platform and controller workstations and $2 billion for cloud computing. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy and White House budget director Russell Vought said the investment would support telecommunications, hardware and software, control towers and airport infrastructure.
Congress approved $12.5 billion over five years in July 2025 for air traffic control upgrades and controller hiring. The FAA relies on decades-old computers and has said it will replace floppy disks used at more than 400 air traffic control facilities by the end of 2028; Duffy and Vought said 68% of its legacy copper telecommunications network has been replaced with high-speed fiber.
