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Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy is asking Congress for $6 billion to $10 billion to integrate artificial intelligence into the U.S. air traffic control system, on top of $12.5 billion already allocated for broader infrastructure upgrades.
"AI is a tool, but we do not replace humans in how we manage the airspace," Duffy told CBS News. "Am I gonna replace a controller and have AI manage the airspace? The answer to that is hell no, that's not gonna happen."
According to Duffy, the AI software would merge airline flight schedules with a Federal Aviation Administration system to help controllers resolve potential delays before they occur — flagging conflicts as far as 45 days out and suggesting adjustments of a few minutes to individual flights.
The funding request comes as the Department of Transportation marked roughly one year of work on a broader overhaul of the air traffic control system. Congress provided $12.5 billion through President Donald Trump's spending bill, which the administration has described as a down payment on a total project the department estimates will cost over $31 billion.
"We were given $12.5 billion, but the $12.5 billion, the Congress was very specific on how we had to use it," Duffy said at a news conference at DOT headquarters, according to CNN. That money has gone toward replacing copper wiring, upgrading radio sites, installing surface awareness systems at airports, and transitioning towers from paper flight strips to digital ones.
Three vendors, whom Duffy declined to name, are already working with the FAA on AI projects, funded by redirected existing resources. The additional $6 billion to $10 billion would cover the broader software build.
"(Congress is) going to have to find a pathway to get us the rest of that money," Duffy said. "It's going to take us time to develop it, deploy it, debug it, train on it."
Union chief Nick Daniels of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association pushed back on the idea that the upgrades threaten jobs, calling them "not competition for the controller workforce." Peraton's Justin Ciaccio, whose firm holds the prime integrator contract, framed AI's role differently, arguing the tools would render controllers "superhuman" without displacing them.
The modernization push has drawn urgency from a series of high-profile incidents. Two pilots died earlier this year after the Air Canada regional jet they were aboard came down on a runway at New York's LaGuardia Airport and struck a fire truck. A collision between a military helicopter and a commercial aircraft near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport claimed 67 lives the previous year; investigators from the NTSB determined that controllers were operating under conditions of degraded performance tied to excessive workload.
DOT's goal is to complete the full overhaul by the end of 2028. "For the most part, we're on track to have this project completed before President Trump leaves office," Duffy said.