Conaway Leads Five Members in Letter to Secretary Duffy on Air Traffic Control System Updates

Washington, D.C.—Today, Congressman Herb Conaway Jr., MD (D-NJ) led five of his colleagues in a letter to Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy, urging that he invoke his preexisting authority to allocate $36 million from the FAA Facilities and Equipment (F&E) account to the Philadelphia Terminal Radar Approach Control (TRACON) at the Philadelphia International Airport. This funding is crucial for implementing the necessary upgrades to the Philadelphia Standard Terminal Automation Replacement System (STARS). This letter is in response to Congressman Conaway’s recent tour of the Philadelphia airport, where he learned firsthand about the need to update these systems.

Currently, the Newark Area (Area C) is being managed using the STARS from New York TRACON (N90), with data transmitted via a commercial telecommunication infrastructure. This approach is unsustainable for an area of such size and traffic volume, resulting in numerous communication and radar outages.

“These recurring outages threaten the safety of pilots and passengers as well as the reliability of our operations,” wrote the lawmakers. “These challenges reinforce the idea that the Philadelphia TRACON STARS is in dire need of an upgrade and a new system is required to ensure Philadelphia TRACON will be able to see radar movement from both Philadelphia TRACON and New York TRACON (N90).”

The letter was also signed by Reps: Mary Gay Scanlon (D-PA), Brendan F. Boyle (D-PA), Sarah McBride (D-DE), Chrissy Houlahan (D-PA), and Madeleine Dean (D-PA). 

For a copy of the letter click here.