Fergie's Tech Blog

Digital Air Traffic System Launched

Sara Kehaulani Goo writes in The Washington Post:

The Federal Aviation Administration said yesterday that it has launched a new digital air traffic system that will improve safety and reduce fuel costs for planes flying over the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.

The $548 million program now operates only over the Atlantic, out of a center in New York, but the FAA plans to expand the program to facilities in Oakland, Calif., and Anchorage, which handle traffic from the Arctic to the South Pacific. It replaces a low-tech system that required pilots to report their longitude and latitude every 50 minutes to an air traffic facility because the oceans are not covered by radar.