James Oberstar: “Airline delays, as I said at the outset of general debate, have reached historic levels, 72 percent of flights arriving…”

“Airline delays, as I said at the outset of general debate, have reached historic levels, 72 percent of flights arriving on time so far this year. Long term, we need continued modernization of the aircraft traffic control system. That is not to say that this is a system that has been frozen in time and nothing has been done. The FAA has, over the past 20-plus years, 25 years, installed over 80,000 pieces of technology to upgrade, modernize, expand, and increase capacity in the air traffic control system. They installed a voice switching and control system over one weekend, with a million lines of computer code, installing this entirely new communication system over one weekend without a second of delay in the air traffic control operations. That's like changing a tire on a car moving at 60 miles an hour. They did it. They installed the automatic replacement system for the en route centers, and did that after 5 years of development of this greatly enhanced new technology, increasing to 1,300,000 lines of computer code. And the installment is now working well. The Standard Terminal Automation Replacement System, the STARS, that, too, took years to develop; 1,300,000 lines of computer code also installed and operating effectively. But those were platforms on which we build the air traffic control technology of the future. And in this legislation, we provide for the funding of the air traffic control technology of the future.”