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Secretary Duffy Debuts DCA Upgrade From Paper to Electronic Flight Strips

February 19, 2026 · US Department of Transportation · 0:01:14

Embedded from the source channel — never re-uploaded. Watch on YouTube

What happened

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy stood in the air traffic control tower at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport and held up the paper flight strips controllers used to pass aircraft from one controller to the next, calling them vintage and announcing the tower’s move to electronic flight strips.

Duffy said the upgrade was made possible by the One Big Beautiful Bill, crediting President Trump and Republicans in Congress with providing $12.5 billion. He said electronic flight strips will bring safety and efficiency to the airspace and to controllers, who he said had been asking for them for years, and that radar, radio, and telecommunications upgrades would follow.

Duffy said modernization work has begun and is moving, in his words, at Trump speed, with the goal of giving the United States the best air traffic control system in the world.

Why it matters

The DCA debut is the first visible, on-camera deliverable of the $12.5 billion air traffic control modernization program, converting an appropriation figure into a concrete system travelers’ flights depend on daily.

Sources: US Department of Transportation, “Secretary Duffy Debuts DCA’s Upgrade from Paper to Electronic Flight Strips”, 2026-02-19 (official upload, embedded above; published 2026-02-19). Transcript via Supadata (private research store, paraphrased and attributed, not republished). All figures and characterizations as stated by the speakers.