Washington, D.C. – Government officials say air traffic controllers in December will begin using satellite-based technology to track aircraft in a 240,000-square mile area of the Gulf of Mexico.
Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood and Randy Babbitt, head of the Federal Aviation Administration, said Monday the move is a significant step toward replacing an air traffic control system based on World War II era radar technology with a GPS-based system.
Babbitt called the new system one of the biggest steps forward in technology in a generation.
The new system will allow airliners to fly more direct routes rather than from radar beacon to radar beacon as they do now. That could save billions of dollars every year in time and fuel, as well as cut pollution.
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