FAA Retires Floppy Disks at 5 Air Traffic Sites, Targets 435 Facilities by 2028

The Federal Aviation Administration said Thursday, Nov. 5, that it is finally retiring FAA floppy disks that still carry weather and other critical data at more than 400 air traffic facilities, swapping four 1980s-era systems for a single digital board called the Enterprise Information Display System, or E-IDS.

Transportation Secretary Sean P. Duffy framed the change as part of a broader push to rebuild aging air traffic control gear. The first five sites are already in line for the upgrade: Atlantic City International Airport, Nashville International Airport, Greater Rochester International Airport, and data-processing hubs in Atlanta and Salt Lake City. The agency plans to put E-IDS into 435 sites by the end of 2028, according to the FAA announcement.

What E-IDS replaces and why floppy disks lasted this long

E-IDS is a digital display that consolidates equipment outages, air traffic conditions, weather impacts, advisories, Pilot Reports and Notices to Airmen in one place. Controllers now juggle four separate legacy systems dating to the 1980s, some of which still lean on 3.5-inch magnetic disks that largely left consumer shelves more than 25 years ago and have not been mass-produced since 2011.

The Verge reported that the Leidos E-IDS contract was awarded in August 2020, during the first Trump administration, so Thursday’s announcement marks a deployment milestone on a multi-year procurement rather than a brand-new idea. FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford said the agency is “moving away from outdated, manual processes” so controllers can share flight alerts, restricted-airspace schedules and pilot reports across the National Airspace System more quickly.

Duffy has repeatedly held up floppy disks and copper wires as symbols of government obsolescence. A September 2024 Government Accountability Office review found that 90% of the nation’s critical air traffic control infrastructure was due or past due for a technology refresh, and nearly half of 138 surveyed systems were “unsustainable” or “potentially unsustainable” because of funding gaps, scarce spare parts or thin maintenance expertise.

By the numbers: modernization so far

Beside E-IDS, the FAA listed other Brand New Air Traffic Control System milestones already claimed under Duffy: Surface Awareness Initiative systems at 143 towers, electronic flight strips at 26 towers, and 226 IP Voice Switches installed. Copper-wire replacement stands at 69%. Separately, Reuters noted that moving major airports off paper flight strips, a program that began in 2022, will still take until at least 2028 even though 27 major airports have already made the switch.

The chart below compares the five sites starting E-IDS now with the 435-site goal for the end of 2028. That is an 87-fold increase in covered facilities over roughly two years, a TBR calculation from the FAA’s own counts.

Money, outages and the limits of one upgrade

Congress approved $12.5 billion last year to repair aging air traffic control systems, and Duffy has sought another $30 billion for further work, Reuters reported. Those dollars sit inside a larger debate tracked on our U.S. Congress page and in the Trump administration tracker.

Retiring floppy disks will not, by itself, end ground stops when fiber cables are cut. Reuters cited an Oct. 23 FAA memo warning airports about recent outages from fiber cuts, including an Oct. 13 cut outside Houston’s George Bush Intercontinental Airport that forced a ground stop, and September disruptions in the Northeast after a Philadelphia circuit failure and a New Jersey cable cut. Controllers also remain short-staffed and overworked, a problem The Verge and other outlets have tied to delays far more often than magnetic media.

Still, E-IDS removes a brittle workflow. Controllers will get weather, NOTAMs and pilot reports on a shared digital board instead of media that is hard to buy and harder to maintain. The FAA says the public can follow BNATCS progress by state and airport on its Modern Skies site.

What travelers should expect through 2028

For passengers, the practical timeline is multi-year. Five facilities are in the first wave now; the rest of the 435-site map stretches to the end of 2028. Paper flight strips and other legacy pieces have similar end dates. Airlines and travelers will continue to feel the effects of staffing and fiber reliability even as the floppy-disk era closes.

The agency presents E-IDS as one more signal that a “brand new” air traffic control system is arriving. The numbers show a real start: five sites live or imminent, a clear 435-site target, and a stack of other hardware swaps already counted. The open question is whether funding, controller hiring and fiber resilience keep pace with the dashboard upgrades. Readers following federal technology spending can also watch business and finance news for how the $12.5 billion package and any follow-on requests move through appropriation fights.

Sources

• FAA: Duffy begins retiring floppy disks from air traffic control (Nov. 5, 2026)
• The Verge: The FAA is finally ditching floppy disks
• Reuters via Investing.com: FAA to phase out floppy disks by 2028