Delta CEO says air traffic control systems are so outdated that some commercial flight routes were faster in the 1950s than they are today

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Ed Bastian says it’s still safe to fly, though.

Last year, chronic flight delays and cancellations at Newark Liberty International Airport revealed a litany of problems with antiquated air traffic control systems. Today, those problems persist and are even more illuminated thanks to the FAA’s nationwide ground stop on Friday.

Even Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy admitted last year that some of the decades-old computer equipment air traffic controllers use looks like it came off the set of Apollo 13, and compared it to a 1967 Volkswagen Beetle.

Delta CEO Ed Bastian also revealed last year that, due to aging air traffic control systems, it actually takes longer today to fly from Atlanta to LaGuardia than it did in the 1950s when the airline opened that route.

“That’s the air traffic control system. It’s very slow. It’s congested,” he told TODAY in May 2025. “If you modernize the skies, you can kind of bring greater efficiency.”

By modernizing the skies, the airline chief means using satellite technology, the latest state-of-the-art equipment, and GPS. But currently, air traffic controllers have to use a radar point-and-shoot system from the 1960s.

“The screens look like something out of the 1960s and ‘70s,” Bastian said. “Our controllers and our operators need the best in order to keep us safe and make sure it maintains its safety record.”

Despite a barrage of emergency landings, machinery failure, a collision, and other air traffic control failures in the airline industry reported this year, he insists it’s still safe to fly.

“It is absolutely safe. It’s the safest form of transportation in the world,” Bastian said. “The most skilled aviation professionals in the world work and operate the U.S. airspace. So it is absolutely safe.”

Although there is bipartisan support to modernize America’s air traffic control system, it’s a process that requires a lot of time and money. On May 8, 2025, Duffy and President Donald Trump announced a plan to build a brand-new air traffic control system “that will be the envy of the world.

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