Delta Airlines CEO Calls On Congress To Fund Air Traffic Control Updates To A 30-Year-Old System

Key takeaways:

• Thousands of flights were grounded in early January due to an outage of the NOTAM system.
• While the NOTAM system delivers safety information to pilots and aircrews, it’s relatively outdated.
• Delta Air Lines’ CEO is calling on lawmakers to provide the FAA with more funding to upgrade its technology.

If you’ve flown recently, you’ve likely had some concerns about making it to your destination on time.

After the holiday travel debacle that saw over 10,000 flights canceled, a system outage caused over 5,000 flights to get delayed or canceled earlier this year. The onslaught of cancellations would make anyone wary about airline travel.

The most recent situation led to comments from Delta Airlines’ CEO. Let’s explore what’s happening, how this could impact the industry and how Q.ai can help.

What’s happening?

The most recent flight fiasco in early January disrupted over 5,000 flights. A breakdown in the Notice to Air Mission (NOTAM) system pushed the FAA to halt domestic departures for approximately two hours on January 11. This had a substantial impact on airlines across the country.

Following the flight chaos, the FAA released a statement about the issue, “The FAA is continuing a thorough review to determine the root cause of the Notice to Air Missions (NOTAM) system outage. Our preliminary work has traced the outage to a damaged database file. At this time, there is no evidence of a cyber attack. The FAA is working diligently to further pinpoint the causes of this issue and take all needed steps to prevent this kind of disruption from happening again.”

This issue caused a major problem for airlines, including major carriers like Delta Airlines. In a fourth-quarter earning call, Edward Bastian, CEO of Delta Air Lines, said, “I think it’s very clear that there has to be a call to action amongst our political leaders; the Congress and the White House, to fund and properly provide the FAA the resources they need to do the job.”

Bastian continues, “We’ve long talked about the need for modernization of our air traffic control systems. I think this is a crystal-clear example of the challenge the FAA has faced when you have aging systems that aren’t as resilient as they need to be. You have tools and technologies that are somewhat outdated and staffing levels not where they need to be.”

In further comments, Bastian acknowledges that the FAA is doing the best it can with the resources they have. However, he emphasized that the FAA should have the funding it needs from Congress to maintain a strong aviation infrastructure.

FAA NOTAM System

If you haven’t heard of the NOTAM system until now, you aren’t alone. This domestic system delivers important information to pilots and aircrews. The system’s goal is to provide any necessary safety information to the crew on board before takeoff.

This system has existed in one form or another for over 75 years. It was originally created to advise ship captains about potential hazards, but it was adapted into an air notification called Notice to Airmen. Last year, the system was renamed to Notice to Air Missions with the goal of increased inclusivity.

Flight Infrastructure Changes Could Fix the Problems

The idea of modernizing the outdated NOTAM system isn’t a new one. In fact, many have called for upgrades to our country’s flight infrastructure for years.

Over the years, the FAA has been working on NextGen, which is a broad plan to upgrade airline infrastructure across the board. Unfortunately, progress on this multi-decade project has been slowed by budget issues. Specifically, the changing FAA budget is subject to renewal every five years.

Lawmaker Response

As usual, the response to Bastian’s comments is mixed among lawmakers. Some Republicans are criticizing those in leadership roles at the FAA and DOTDOT
, while some Democrats are supportive of the FAA and have confidence in the agency’s ability to turn the situation around.

In the coming weeks and months, travelers and airlines will have to wait and see what the FAA does to move forward. While most hope that the agency will be able to protect the system from future widespread outages, many agree that it’s time for an upgrade to the information delivery system.

Impacts on Investors

For investors, the shaky NOTAM system is a cause for concern across the airline industry. When flights are delayed and canceled, that costs the airlines precious time and profits. While the weather will always lead to some large-scale cancellations here and there, an outage of the NOTAM system is a completely avoidable loss of time in the air.

Of course, no one can foresee how the NOTAM system drama will play out. However, the forward progress of the FAA toward modernization would likely provide a much-needed infrastructure boost for the airline industry.

If you are an investor who doesn’t want to monitor the ups and downs of flight trouble, harnessing artificial intelligence (AI) might be the way to go. Q.ai offers Investment Kits powered by AI to build a portfolio that meets your investment goals. When the market changes, Q.ai will make the necessary adjustments to keep your portfolio in line with your risk tolerance and goals.

The bottom line

Investors who choose to add individual stocks to their portfolio can find opportunities by monitoring the headlines. As the airline industry moves forward, the headline news could make a big difference for companies and investors.

But, if you don’t want to monitor the headlines, consider working with Q.ai.

Download Q.ai today for access to AI-powered investment strategies.