Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy says aviation equipment across the country dates back as far as the 1960s–relying on outdated copper wiring, analog networks, and paper systems.
“For you all specifically here in Grand Rapids, we are bringing you a new surface awareness system on its way. New voice switches, new radios. We're replacing the paper strips which, if you haven't seen this, the controllers, as they pass off one airplane from one controller to the other, they use paper strips, like it's 1954. We have digitized this.”
The Gerald R. Ford International Airport is receiving $25 million from President Trump’s Working Families Tax Cuts.
The airport’s old copper telecommunications have already been replaced with new high-speed fiber, laying the groundwork for new software.
“That's one of the biggest challenges that we have in all of the build is this switchover from analog to digital. And then we have to reconstruct our whole network. We can't even get to the cloud. The system is so bad. We would like to be able to get into the cloud. There's a lot of tools we can use.”
Future upgrades also include a new radar system scheduled for 2028.
Additionally, the airport received $6 million from the department for family waiting rooms and restrooms in the Terminal B concourse.
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