FAA Switches On First US Digital Air Traffic Control Towers in Florida and Alaska

Digital towers replace the view from a tower cab with high-definition cameras, sensors and screens that give controllers a continuous 360-degree picture of runways, taxiways and nearby airspace. Systems can also add infrared cameras, aircraft identification tags and microphones that pipe airfield sound into the control room, AVweb reported. The technology lets small airports that have no staffed tower get one without the cost of building a traditional structure, and it puts the FAA on a path other countries took years ago.

The agency stressed that the systems are not meant to replace people. "Our air traffic controllers continue to do the critical job of keeping aircraft safely separated, and we're giving them better technology to do that," FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford said in a statement. "Digital towers provide controllers with greater visibility of airport activity and more information to make critical decisions."

Both systems are supplied by Austrian company Frequentis. Its smartVISION system received the FAA's first system design approval in September, covering single-runway airports in Class D airspace, according to AVweb. Bartow began operating that month.

Five more airports are due to get the technology next: Winter Haven Regional and Venice Municipal in Florida, Montgomery County Airpark in Maryland, Johnston Regional in North Carolina and Durango-La Plata County in Colorado. The Working Families Tax Cut Act allocated $50 million for digital tower deployment, AVweb reported. Aviation Week described Bartow and Kenai as the first of seven airports that controllers will manage from remote operations centres.

The launch ends a stop-start history. A camera-based remote tower began providing air traffic services at Leesburg Executive Airport in Virginia in 2018, and the FAA judged it operationally viable in 2021. But the agency ended that programme in June 2023 after the developer, Saab, withdrew from the design approval process, a decision aviation groups and elected officials opposed.

The towers are part of a broader effort to replace outdated equipment across the US air traffic system, which still relies in places on copper telecommunications lines, floppy disks and paper strips to track aircraft. Congress approved $12.5bn over five years in June 2025 for air traffic control upgrades, and the Trump administration is asking lawmakers for another $30bn, The Guardian reported. In September the FAA introduced an AI software tool called the Strategic Management of Airspace, Routes and Trajectories, or Smart.

The modernisation drive has faced close scrutiny since a midair collision between a passenger jet and a military helicopter near Washington DC in 2025 killed 67 people, and amid a national shortage of air traffic controllers.

Bedford is due to appear before the House transportation and infrastructure committee next week, where he is expected to face questions on the progress of the $12.5bn programme.