US aviation regulator to retire floppy disks in air traffic control

The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), which oversees civil aviation in the country, plans to move away from floppy disks and legacy computer systems used by air traffic controllers. US Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy announced the change in a video posted on social media. The new system, called E-IDS, is meant to give controllers a single platform for critical information.

What is being replaced

The FAA said E-IDS will replace four existing information display systems: IDS-4, ACE-IDS, NIDS and ERIDS. One of them, IDS-4, runs on MS-DOS. According to a 2018 statement from its vendor, Systems Atlanta, it has been in constant use since the early 1990s. PCMag notes that the system appears to run on desktop PCs with 3.5-inch floppy disk drives.

In the video Duffy posted, a newscaster says the FAA's systems are essentially running on Windows 95. Duffy said: "Good news America: floppy disks are out, 21st century tech is in."

Project background

The FAA awarded Leidos a contract to design and develop E-IDS in August 2020. It is part of NextGen, the FAA's air traffic modernization program, which includes upgrades dating back to 2008. Duffy credited President Donald Trump with the plan, although officials in both the Biden and Trump administrations shepherded the project.

Criticism of the old systems

An April 2026 Department of Transportation report said controllers had used a floppy-disk-driven system for weather, NOTAMs (notices to airmen) and airport status information. A September report by the US Government Accountability Office (GAO) said the legacy systems rely on obsolete technology and 1980s interfaces, with inefficient data organization and manual updates. The systems are used in air route traffic control centers, terminal radar approach control facilities and control towers, and display textual and graphical information such as flight approach charts.