Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy has asked Congress to approve a $30 billion overhaul of the national air traffic control system, a request that would fund replacement of aging infrastructure across the Federal Aviation Administration's network.

Duffy is pressing lawmakers to back the multi-billion-dollar program as the FAA confronts equipment failures and outages that have disrupted airline operations nationwide. The proposal targets the hardware and facilities that controllers rely on to manage traffic at the country's busiest airports and en-route sectors.

The funding request puts a specific price tag on what regulators and airline executives have described for years as a long-deferred modernization problem. Airways and airports have operated with radar, radio and data-processing systems that in some cases date back decades, and controllers have reported failures that forced ground stops and flight cancellations during high-traffic periods.

Congress now holds the decision. Approval of the $30 billion package would determine the pace at which the FAA can retire obsolete equipment, install new surveillance and communications systems, and rebuild control facilities whose condition has deteriorated beyond routine maintenance.

For airlines, the outcome carries direct cost and schedule consequences. ATC equipment failures translate into ground delays, diversions and cancellations that erode on-time performance and add crew and fuel costs — impacts carriers have repeatedly attributed to the control system rather than to their own operations.

Duffy's appeal to Congress signals that the executive branch views the funding gap as too large to close through the FAA's existing budget cycle. Whether lawmakers move the package, and on what timeline, will shape the capacity outlook for the national airspace system over the coming decade.