Unlike Other Countries, America's Government Funds Its Air Infrastructure

Despite handling the most flights in the world, the United States' air traffic systems rely on 1980s-era computer equipment.

It took Canada two years to replace paper flight strips with electronic ones in air traffic control towers, a simple transition to avoid cascading delays. In the United States, the same project has taken more than four decades, and it is still not complete.

The example highlights an irony. Despite handling the most flights in the world, America's air traffic control systems -- still using 1980s-era equipment and prone to widespread failures -- have lagged behind some global peers when it comes to improving technology.

A key difference, aviation experts say, is that the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration relies on Congress to fund crucial upgrades, while other countries have privatized their air traffic control. That has meant more money, more consistently, to invest in improving systems in places like Canada and the European Union, both considered success stories in aviation management.

The F.A.A.'s issuing of a nationwide ground stop on Friday underscored America's aging infrastructure, which experts have warned for years is in urgent need of modernizing, and which critics say has been chronically underfunded. For decades, U.S. air traffic communications have relied on a system that runs on analog copper wire, floppy disks and alphabetical keyboards so old that the F.A.A. has difficulty sourcing spare parts.

Speaking to reporters after the outage, Sean Duffy, the transportation secretary, echoed those concerns, describing an air traffic control system stuck in the past, and demanding $50 billion from Congress to improve it.

"Canada and the European Union don't have to worry about the public purse," said John Gradek, an aviation management expert at McGill University. "They are masters of their own destiny."