FAA switches on first digital air traffic control towers in Florida and Alaska

The Federal Aviation Administration says the first two digital air traffic control towers in the US are up and running. The systems went live at Bartow executive airport (KBOW) in Florida and Kenai municipal airport (PAEN) in Alaska, with five more regional airports lined up to get the same gear, according to the agency.

Instead of peering out a window, controllers work from camera arrays and digital displays that stitch together a continuous 360-degree view of runways, taxiways and the airspace around them. The FAA is blunt that humans aren't going anywhere — the tech is meant to hand controllers extra visibility and information, not a pink slip. Administrator Bryan Bedford said controllers keep doing the critical work of keeping aircraft safely separated, and the new kit gives them better tools for it.

The towers are a small piece of a much bigger overhaul. Congress approved $12.5bn over five years in June 2025 for air traffic control reforms, money aimed at retiring decades-old equipment that still runs on copper telecommunications lines, floppy disks and paper strips for tracking aircraft. The Trump administration wants Congress to cough up another $30bn on top of that.

Bedford heads to the House transportation and infrastructure committee next week, where lawmakers will press him on how the modernization push is going and where it's snagging. The FAA already rolled out an AI tool called Strategic Management of Airspace, Routes and Trajectories — Smart, for short — in September, and questions about what technology belongs in the control room have grown louder alongside broader anxiety about AI.

Scrutiny of US air traffic safety has been fierce. A midair collision between a passenger jet and a military helicopter on the outskirts of Washington DC in 2025 killed 67 people, the country's deadliest crash in more than two decades, and investigators later called it '100% preventable'. Trump has also taken heavy criticism for his handling of the national shortage of air traffic controllers that followed last year's government shutdown.