Duffy seeks billions more for air traffic overhaul after rare grounding of flights nationwide

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy has stepped up calls for tens of billions of dollars from Congress to improve the nation’s rickety air traffic system — a call made Friday night after an hours-long nationwide shutdown of aviation disruptions across the country.

Duffy was seeking $30 billion from Congress to modernize the system. On Friday, he increased that request to $50 billion.

The ground shutdown, which was ordered late in the afternoon, spread across the country, disrupting flights at airports across the country and leaving airlines facing a backlog of delays as they worked to resume operations on schedule.

Secretary of Homeland Security Markwayne Mullin said Friday that there was “no evidence” that the grounding of the airliners was due to a cyberattack or artificial intelligence incursion, although it said “we are still investigating” that possibility. Instead, Duffy said the facilities that route flights began experiencing “instability” in radar data and communications with aircraft, leading to inconsistent information between pilots and controllers.