Hundreds of FAA sites still run 1980s display systems, some on floppy disks, and they’re finally going

Inside some U.S. air traffic facilities, a 3.5-inch floppy disk still helps load the information controllers read while they manage traffic. The disks do not steer aircraft or drive radar, but they sit inside display equipment that has been running since the 1980s, and the Federal Aviation Administration said on Nov. 5 that the retirement has begun.

Read next on Morning Overview: Cadillac cut the price of its cheapest EV, which goes up to 317 miles on a charge

The agency counts more than 400 of its facilities running four legacy information-display systems, and it plans to replace them with a single digital platform at 435 sites by the end of 2028. The first installations are already scheduled for five specific places.

Four old systems, one replacement

The new platform is the Enterprise Information Display System, or E-IDS. According to the FAA’s Nov. 5 release, it replaces four systems that date to the 1980s, and the outdated floppy disks being retired hold weather and other critical information. The first five sites are Atlantic City International Airport, Nashville International Airport, Greater Rochester International Airport, and data processing hubs in Atlanta and Salt Lake City.

Reporting by The Register names the four systems: Information Display System 4 for weather and operational information, the Automated Surface Observing System Controller Equipment Information Display System for weather, the NAS Information Display System for airport and airspace conditions, and the En Route Information Display System for flight information. E-IDS pulls their data into one platform, and it is meant to improve how pilot reports and Notices to Airmen are collected and distributed.

Which of the four depend on floppies is where the sources part ways. The FAA release does not say. The Register says the same. Air Data News singles out one system, Information Display System 4, saying it runs on MS-DOS and relies on computers with 3.5-inch floppy drives, and stresses that the disks are not used to directly control aircraft or radar.

Duffy, Bedford and the rollout schedule

Transportation Secretary Sean P. Duffy put it in a sentence: “Good news America: floppy disks are out, 21st century tech is in.” In the department’s own version of the announcement, he added that the greatest nation in the world deserves a state-of-the-art air traffic control system, and he called the installation the latest signal that a brand new air traffic control system is arriving fast.

FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford gave the operational argument. In the agency’s words, E-IDS gives air traffic controllers the information they need to make timely decisions and keep the flying public safe. AvWeb’s coverage adds that Bedford described the agency as moving away from outdated, manual processes, and that the larger first phase of modernization has a December 2028 target.

The same release lists other progress counts: 69 percent of copper wires replaced, Surface Awareness Initiative systems installed at 143 towers, 26 towers moved to electronic flight strips, and 226 IP voice switches installed. It gives no cost figure for E-IDS itself.

Duffy’s framing carries a promise of speed. The Register notes that the Transportation Secretary proposed a three-year overhaul timetable last year, which makes the 2028 finish for E-IDS one piece of a schedule that outsiders can now check against dates. The FAA’s own release gives no E-IDS price tag and no count of how many floppy disks are in service, so neither the cost of this step nor the size of the stockpile can be read from the record.

Money, a 2023 outage and unfinished funding

The age of the equipment has caused trouble before. The Register recalls that in 2023 an accidentally deleted file in the NOTAM system temporarily halted domestic departures nationwide, and that a 2024 Government Accountability Office report found 51 of the FAA’s 138 air traffic control systems unsustainable because of a lack of parts and funding. Air Data News adds that replacement parts for some obsolete equipment have been sourced from secondary markets, eBay among them, and that some gear dates from the 1990s as well as the 1980s.

The bill is large and not fully paid. The Register reports that a $12.5 billion allocation covered part of the overhaul, that the FAA said in December 2025 it needed an additional $20 billion, and that in September the Government Accountability Office said a further $10.2 billion would be required for a second phase with no completion date. An FAA spokesperson, as quoted by the outlet, is calling on Congress to pass the Modern Skies Act, which asks for $30 billion.

The Register’s Brandon Vigliarolo made the same point about the agency’s wording, that the floppies are not necessarily gone, since the wider overhaul still needs funding to finish. So the floppy disk is a visible symbol on a much longer list. For the 400-plus facilities, the question that matters is the schedule: five sites are named first, 435 are promised by the end of 2028, and nobody in the published record has said which of the four old systems goes dark last.

This article was produced with the assistance of AI and reviewed by Morning Overview editors prior to publication.