US FAA to replace floppy-disk air traffic control systems by end of 2028

What the FAA announced

On Thursday, 5 November 2026, the Federal Aviation Administration said it will replace diskette-based systems that supply weather data and other critical information to air traffic controllers at more than 400 facilities across the country. Those systems date from the 1980s, and four legacy setups will be swapped out for the Enterprise Information Display System, known as E-IDS. The new platform provides a digital display for status information, updates and alerts meant for air traffic teams. The FAA intends to have E-IDS installed at 435 sites by the end of 2028. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy presented the rollout in a release that celebrated the end of the disks.

“Good news America: floppy disks are out, 21st century tech is in,”

First sites and the rollout schedule

Upgrades have already started at five locations: Atlantic City International Airport, Nashville International Airport and Greater Rochester International Airport, along with data processing hubs in Atlanta and Salt Lake City. The remaining sites will follow in stages, and the schedule runs through the end of 2028. The FAA's timeline also covers a series of earlier steps that led to the current plan.

Long procurement and an aging network

E-IDS is not a sudden fix. The FAA first awarded the contract for the system to Leidos in August 2020, and the project has since moved through procurement, safety validation and testing. A Government Accountability Office report from September 2024 found that 90 percent of critical air traffic control infrastructure was at or beyond its scheduled technology refresh point. Of the 138 systems the report surveyed, nearly half were judged unsustainable or potentially unsustainable, because of funding shortfalls, thin maintenance expertise and missing spare parts. The bulletin board used to exchange key information still runs on floppy disks, and some radar systems are more than 35 years old.

The floppy disk is not the only dated format still in official use. The US Air Force ended its use of 8-inch diskettes tied to nuclear missile launch silos only in 2019, and Japan said in 2024 that it had phased out all but one of its systems that still relied on floppy disks.

Funding and spending pressure

Congress approved $12.5 billion last year for modernizing the system, and Duffy is seeking an additional $30 billion for further upgrades. The FAA's annual maintenance budget is about $3 billion, and most of that money goes toward keeping the aging infrastructure running. Parts for many components are no longer manufactured, which makes repairs harder and more costly. The agency has warned for years that political budget fights left too little money for the service, and large investment plans often stalled in Washington.

Approved by Congress12.5

Additional sought by Duffy30

Approved by Congress

12.5 USD bn

Additional sought by Duffy

30 USD bn

Data from the article text

Safety record

The FAA has been in the news over safety incidents, including several cases in which aircraft came dangerously close to each other on runways at airports in New York, Austin and Boston. The E-IDS upgrade is presented as a step toward faster access to information for controllers, lower repair costs and better safety for air travel. Installation at the first five sites has begun, and the wider rollout is scheduled to run through the end of 2028.