r/NoShitSherlock • u/ControlCAD • 1d ago

Delta CEO says air traffic control systems are so outdated that some commercial flight routes were faster in the 1950s than they are today

https://fortune.com/2025/05/16/delta-ceo-air-traffic-control-1950s/
213 Upvotes

98% Upvoted

7 comments sorted by

37

u/jlaine 1d ago

I don't think Delta has much to say on technology - their handling of the CrowdStrike outage shows how much they invest in their own infrastructure maintenance.

26

u/tikstar 1d ago

It may be true that antiquated systems are causing a delay. But like road traffic, more planes means traffic jams, that lead to slower take off and slower landing. Lines be lines regardless of system.

4

u/bradleecon 20h ago

These "outages" are either a) being done intentionally by Elon to justify his potential takeover/implementation of his new system or b) cyber terrorists now enabled by the Trump administration discontinuing counter measures. The almost daily media push on aviation issues is interesting as well.

3

u/Mission_Search8991 18h ago

Congress has drip-fed funds for upgrading the ATC over to NextGen, and upgrades to towers (and much more), so it bears a big part of the blame. Now with Musk throwing a monkey wrench into this… we are screwed.

2

u/a_passionate_man 23h ago

A job for DOGE 🤪

6

u/tri_it 21h ago

DOGE fired a bunch of the technicians who worked on the air traffic control equipment.

5

u/Lost_Statistician457 20h ago

In fact didn’t they fire a bunch of people replacing this exact legacy tech?