# FAA Names First Five Sites for Floppy-Disk-Era Air Traffic Display Replacement

> MKNIRALO — Technology — AVIATION / AIR TRAFFIC SYSTEMS

- Published: 2026-11-07
- Estimated reading time: 7 minutes
- Byline: Reeve — Air Traffic Systems and Aviation Infrastructure Observer
- Byline disclosure: Reeve is a publication-maintained house editorial byline, not a claim of an independently verified individual. The profile does not imply aviation credentials, professional controller experience, access to FAA facilities or personal testing.
- Author profile: https://mkniralo.com/authors/reeve/
- Tags: FAA, Air Traffic Control, Aviation Safety, E-IDS, Infrastructure Modernization, Technology, United States
- Cover image: https://mkniralo.com/images/faa-e-ids-floppy-disk-replacement-435-sites-2028-2026.svg

The FAA has named the first five E-IDS facilities and a 435-site target for 2028. The upgrade concerns controller information displays, not aircraft control, and faces scheduling scrutiny.

For controllers, timely information is part of safe operations. The Federal Aviation Administration has named the first five facilities in a nationwide replacement of decades-old air traffic control information displays, a project whose most visible symbol is the retirement of floppy disks. Announced on November 5, the Enterprise Information Display System, or E-IDS, is intended to combine weather, operational notices and other controller information on one platform. The agency aims to install it at 435 FAA sites by the end of 2028. The change matters because controllers need dependable information as well as surveillance and communications. Yet an installation target is not proof that the new displays have passed site-specific operational tests, and replacing an information screen is not the same as replacing the systems that actually track and communicate with aircraft.

## Five starting sites and one nationwide target

The initial recipients are FAA facilities at Atlantic City International Airport in New Jersey, Nashville International Airport in Tennessee and Greater Rochester International Airport in New York, together with data-processing hubs in Atlanta and Salt Lake City. The mix matters: the agency's 435-site target counts operational FAA locations, not passenger terminals, and does not mean that 435 airports are getting rebuilt. The November announcement does not list installation or commissioning dates for each of the five facilities.

Transportation Secretary Sean P. Duffy announced the first locations, while FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford described a move away from manual processes toward faster information sharing. Their statements set out the agency's intended direction rather than independently measured operational gains. Specialist coverage from Airways and AVweb confirmed the same five-site list and distinguished the information-display work from other air traffic control upgrades. The FAA points readers to its Modern Skies program for broader modernization tracking, but the announced deadline remains a staged deployment goal.

Sources:
- [Trump’s Transportation Secretary Sean P. Duffy Begins Retiring Decades Old Floppy Disks from Air Traffic Control as Part of Ongoing Modernization Effort](https://www.faa.gov/newsroom/trumps-transportation-secretary-sean-p-duffy-begins-retiring-decades-old-floppy-disks-air) — Federal Aviation Administration
- [FAA Begins E-IDS Rollout at First Five Facilities](https://www.airwaysmag.com/new-post/faa-eids-first-five-facilities) — Airways Magazine
- [FAA Begins Replacing Floppy Disks in ATC Upgrade](https://avweb.com/aviation-news/faa-replacing-floppy-disks-atc-upgrade/) — AVweb

## What E-IDS is designed to put on one display

The FAA identifies four legacy information-display systems for replacement: Information Display System 4, or IDS-4; Automated Surface Observing System (ASOS) Controller Equipment Information Display System, or ACE-IDS; NAS Information Display System, or NIDS; and En Route Information Display System, or ERIDS. They perform related but not identical tasks. The new platform is intended to let controllers consult operational information through a more consistent interface instead of maintaining separate aging displays and workarounds.

According to the agency, the information includes weather impacts, equipment disruptions, airspace advisories and the status of other important services. Pilot reports, known as PIREPs, communicate conditions encountered in flight, while Notices to Airmen, or NOTAMs, alert aviation users to operational conditions and hazards. The FAA's program description also calls for information exchange across the National Airspace System and integration with its System Wide Information Management infrastructure. These are planned capabilities; the November release does not show that every function has been activated at each initial location.

Sources:
- [Trump’s Transportation Secretary Sean P. Duffy Begins Retiring Decades Old Floppy Disks from Air Traffic Control as Part of Ongoing Modernization Effort](https://www.faa.gov/newsroom/trumps-transportation-secretary-sean-p-duffy-begins-retiring-decades-old-floppy-disks-air) — Federal Aviation Administration
- [Enterprise Information Display System (E-IDS)](https://www.faa.gov/air_traffic/technology/eids) — Federal Aviation Administration
- [FAA Begins Replacing Floppy Disks in ATC Upgrade](https://avweb.com/aviation-news/faa-replacing-floppy-disks-atc-upgrade/) — AVweb

## Floppy disks are not steering aircraft

The phrase 'floppy-disk air traffic control' is memorable but easily misunderstood. The equipment being replaced supports the display, distribution and retrieval of information that controllers consult. The announcement does not say that a floppy disk directly steers an aircraft, drives radar, or issues flight-control commands. It is about getting weather, restrictions and other advisories to the people making time-sensitive decisions, not automating the physical movement of airplanes.

That distinction does not make the problem trivial. Old hardware can become difficult to repair, and separate interfaces can make information exchange more cumbersome. The FAA says E-IDS should reduce repairs and manual workarounds and make it easier to share alerts. Those are plausible operational reasons to modernize, but they are not the same as published evidence of reduced flight delays or cancellations. As the FAA announcement itself frames it, this is one part of a wider modernization effort that includes other equipment and longstanding system constraints.

Sources:
- [Trump’s Transportation Secretary Sean P. Duffy Begins Retiring Decades Old Floppy Disks from Air Traffic Control as Part of Ongoing Modernization Effort](https://www.faa.gov/newsroom/trumps-transportation-secretary-sean-p-duffy-begins-retiring-decades-old-floppy-disks-air) — Federal Aviation Administration
- [Enterprise Information Display System (E-IDS)](https://www.faa.gov/air_traffic/technology/eids) — Federal Aviation Administration
- [FAA to finally ditch floppy disks in what it calls “historic” tech upgrade](https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/11/faa-to-finally-ditch-floppy-disks-in-what-it-calls-historic-tech-upgrade/) — Ars Technica
- [Air Traffic Control: FAA Actions Are Urgently Needed to Modernize Aging Systems (GAO-24-107001)](https://www.gao.gov/products/gao-24-107001) — U.S. Government Accountability Office

## A project with a history before the new announcement

E-IDS is not a design that first appeared in November 2026. In August 2020, Leidos announced an FAA prime contract to develop a common information-display platform, describing an approximate $292 million contract value and options extending beyond the initial base period. Its announcement referred to replacing five legacy systems. The FAA's current program page names four. Those statements describe their respective programs at different dates and should not be silently treated as identical lists or evidence of a single unchanged scope.

The procurement path subsequently changed. A September 2024 Government Accountability Office review described delays and oversight concerns involving the display modernization investment. In a September 14, 2026 audit, GAO reported that the FAA ended the associated vendor contract in May 2025 and chose in-house development, which officials said would allow more flexibility and a faster rollout. GAO did not identify the vendor in that passage. Importantly, Leidos' 2020 contract value is historical context, not the established total price of the current E-IDS deployment; the November announcement gave no new total.

Sources:
- [Air Traffic Control Systems: Ambitious New Modernization Effort Needs to Improve Cost and Schedule Planning (GAO-26-107992)](https://files.gao.gov/reports/GAO-26-107992/index.html) — U.S. Government Accountability Office
- [FAA selects Leidos for Enterprise-Information Display System](https://www.leidos.com/insights/faa-selects-leidos-enterprise-information-display-system) — Leidos
- [FAA Begins E-IDS Rollout at First Five Facilities](https://www.airwaysmag.com/new-post/faa-eids-first-five-facilities) — Airways Magazine
- [Air Traffic Control: FAA Actions Are Urgently Needed to Modernize Aging Systems (GAO-24-107001)](https://www.gao.gov/products/gao-24-107001) — U.S. Government Accountability Office

## The accelerated 2028 schedule raises coordination questions

GAO's September 2026 report shows how much the target accelerated. In its comparison of plans, the information-display program moved from a September 30, 2034 completion date to September 30, 2028, a shift of 72 months. The FAA's November announcement describes the public-facing goal as installation at 435 sites by the end of 2028. Neither date establishes that all locations will switch over on the same day or that operational acceptance work is already finished.

The watchdog also found weaknesses in the broader Brand New Air Traffic Control System program's lifecycle cost planning and integrated scheduling. As of its review, thousands of individual project schedules were not organized into a coordinated master plan. GAO illustrated the problem with separate visits planned for voice-switch and display work at the same facility, raising the risk of repeated operational disruption. That is a warning about coordination and implementation, not a finding that any of the five newly named sites has failed testing. Faster schedules make installation sequencing, maintenance access and proper validation particularly important.

Sources:
- [Trump’s Transportation Secretary Sean P. Duffy Begins Retiring Decades Old Floppy Disks from Air Traffic Control as Part of Ongoing Modernization Effort](https://www.faa.gov/newsroom/trumps-transportation-secretary-sean-p-duffy-begins-retiring-decades-old-floppy-disks-air) — Federal Aviation Administration
- [Air Traffic Control Systems: Ambitious New Modernization Effort Needs to Improve Cost and Schedule Planning (GAO-26-107992)](https://files.gao.gov/reports/GAO-26-107992/index.html) — U.S. Government Accountability Office
- [FAA Begins E-IDS Rollout at First Five Facilities](https://www.airwaysmag.com/new-post/faa-eids-first-five-facilities) — Airways Magazine
- [FAA Begins Replacing Floppy Disks in ATC Upgrade](https://avweb.com/aviation-news/faa-replacing-floppy-disks-atc-upgrade/) — AVweb

## What would count as demonstrated progress

The first measurable milestone is straightforward: evidence that E-IDS equipment has been installed at the announced facilities and then progressively at other FAA sites. A more informative record would separate hardware installation from commissioning, controller training, interoperability checks and acceptance of reliable day-to-day operation. The public announcement names five initial recipients but provides no site-by-site commissioning dates or field reliability results. It also publishes no measured improvement in punctuality or cancellations attributable to the displays.

Readers should therefore distinguish three claims: the FAA has publicly identified a rollout, the technology is designed to simplify access to essential operational information, and the intended benefits still require evidence from use. Later FAA implementation updates and independent oversight reports can establish how many sites are operating the system, whether target dates hold and how it performs alongside other modernization projects. For now, the confirmed development is the start of a high-profile, long-delayed information-system replacement, not completion of a nationwide air traffic control transformation.

Sources:
- [Trump’s Transportation Secretary Sean P. Duffy Begins Retiring Decades Old Floppy Disks from Air Traffic Control as Part of Ongoing Modernization Effort](https://www.faa.gov/newsroom/trumps-transportation-secretary-sean-p-duffy-begins-retiring-decades-old-floppy-disks-air) — Federal Aviation Administration
- [Enterprise Information Display System (E-IDS)](https://www.faa.gov/air_traffic/technology/eids) — Federal Aviation Administration
- [Air Traffic Control Systems: Ambitious New Modernization Effort Needs to Improve Cost and Schedule Planning (GAO-26-107992)](https://files.gao.gov/reports/GAO-26-107992/index.html) — U.S. Government Accountability Office
- [FAA Begins E-IDS Rollout at First Five Facilities](https://www.airwaysmag.com/new-post/faa-eids-first-five-facilities) — Airways Magazine
- [FAA Begins Replacing Floppy Disks in ATC Upgrade](https://avweb.com/aviation-news/faa-replacing-floppy-disks-atc-upgrade/) — AVweb
- [FAA to finally ditch floppy disks in what it calls “historic” tech upgrade](https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/11/faa-to-finally-ditch-floppy-disks-in-what-it-calls-historic-tech-upgrade/) — Ars Technica

## About this article

This article reflects the public sources available on the publication and update dates shown above. For developing stories, follow the linked source pages for subsequent statements or decisions.

## Sources and further reading

- [Trump’s Transportation Secretary Sean P. Duffy Begins Retiring Decades Old Floppy Disks from Air Traffic Control as Part of Ongoing Modernization Effort](https://www.faa.gov/newsroom/trumps-transportation-secretary-sean-p-duffy-begins-retiring-decades-old-floppy-disks-air) — Federal Aviation Administration (published 2026-11-05) (accessed 2026-11-07)
- [Enterprise Information Display System (E-IDS)](https://www.faa.gov/air_traffic/technology/eids) — Federal Aviation Administration (published 2026-10-28) (accessed 2026-11-07)
- [Air Traffic Control Systems: Ambitious New Modernization Effort Needs to Improve Cost and Schedule Planning (GAO-26-107992)](https://files.gao.gov/reports/GAO-26-107992/index.html) — U.S. Government Accountability Office (published 2026-09-14) (accessed 2026-11-07)
- [FAA selects Leidos for Enterprise-Information Display System](https://www.leidos.com/insights/faa-selects-leidos-enterprise-information-display-system) — Leidos (published 2020-08-25) (accessed 2026-11-07)
- [FAA Begins E-IDS Rollout at First Five Facilities](https://www.airwaysmag.com/new-post/faa-eids-first-five-facilities) — Airways Magazine (published 2026-11-06) (accessed 2026-11-07)
- [FAA Begins Replacing Floppy Disks in ATC Upgrade](https://avweb.com/aviation-news/faa-replacing-floppy-disks-atc-upgrade/) — AVweb (published 2026-11-05) (accessed 2026-11-07)
- [FAA to finally ditch floppy disks in what it calls “historic” tech upgrade](https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/11/faa-to-finally-ditch-floppy-disks-in-what-it-calls-historic-tech-upgrade/) — Ars Technica (published 2026-11-06) (accessed 2026-11-07)
- [Air Traffic Control: FAA Actions Are Urgently Needed to Modernize Aging Systems (GAO-24-107001)](https://www.gao.gov/products/gao-24-107001) — U.S. Government Accountability Office (published 2024-09-23) (accessed 2026-11-07)