We thought this was some sort of joke when this item first came across my screen a few days ago. But it is real. Here is the press release from Trump Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy.
QUOTE: Thursday, November 5, 2026
WASHINGTON, D.C. - U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean P. Duffy today announced the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is continuing its historic modernization of America’s air traffic control system by replacing outdated floppy disks that contain vital weather and other critical information with a streamlined, 21st-century system.
The Enterprise – Information Display System (E-IDS) replaces four systems dating back to the 1980s that are in more than 400 FAA facilities. E-IDS provides a single, secure system that gives air traffic controllers faster access to information they need. It also will reduce costly repairs and workarounds while enhancing safety for the American flying public.
The first five facilities to receive these upgrades include:
- Atlantic City International Airport
- Nashville International Airport
- Greater Rochester International Airport
- Data processing hubs in Atlanta and Salt Lake City
The FAA plans to install E-IDS in 435 sites by the end of 2028.
“Good news America: floppy disks are out, 21st century tech is in,” said U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean P. Duffy. “The greatest nation in the world deserves a state-of-the-art air traffic control system, and under President Trump, we’re delivering just that. The installation of E-IDS is just the latest signal that America’s brand new air traffic control system is coming at lightning speed.” END QUOTE
Here are further details from an SI-generated answer:
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) plans to phase out floppy disks from its air traffic control infrastructure by 2028, replacing outdated 1980s-era systems used at more than 400 facilities.
The outdated technology, which stores vital weather and operational data, will be replaced by the Enterprise Information Display System (E-IDS), a modern digital platform that centralizes flight alerts, weather reports, and airspace schedules for faster controller access.
The new E-IDS will replace four legacy systems, including IDS-4, which runs on Windows 95 and relies on 3.5-inch floppy disks for data distribution.
The upgrade has already been deployed at five initial sites, including Atlantic City, Nashville, and Rochester airports, as well as data hubs in Atlanta and Salt Lake City.
This initiative is part of a larger $12.5 billion modernization effort approved by Congress in 2025, which also aims to eliminate the use of paper flight strips at 49 major airports by 2028. Duffy wants another $30 billion for additional upgrades as the FAA deals with numerous technology issues.
The FAA has previously relied on decades-old Compaq computers and purchased replacement parts via eBay to maintain these legacy systems, citing issues with parts availability and system silos that hindered communication between facilities.
It is utterly shocking that previous administrations have done virtually nothing to provide modern technology for a transportation system upon which Americans have come to rely. Thank you, DJT and Sec. Duffy!
Nonetheless, on this upcoming Thanksgiving Day, someone may want to praise and thank our heavenly Father for all the safe airline flights which have been controlled with dinosaur computer systems running on floppy disks for the past four or five decades!
Despite the lack of competence by our government “leaders” these past number of decades, statistics show that flying is very safe—whether it is around the USA or around the world.
The odds of being killed in a commercial airliner crash are approximately 1 in 13.7 million passenger boardings, according to a 2024 Massachusetts Institute of Technology study covering global data from 2018 to 2022.
Other estimates vary by region and statistical methods, with U.S.-specific statistics suggesting odds as low as 1 in 816 million per passenger, or broadly 1 in 11 million annually for the average American.
Fatal accidents occur at a rate of roughly 0.18 per million flights for large commercial airliners, meaning the probability of dying in such an accident is extraordinarily low.
If an accident does occur, the overall occupant survival rate is approximately 95–96%, and even in serious accidents with substantial damage, the survival rate remains high at around 59–77%.
Flying is significantly safer than driving; the risk of dying in a car crash is about 1 in 5,000, which is thousands of times more likely than dying in a commercial plane crash.
When my loved ones are flying I always say a special prayer for their safety. I would guess that most of our readers do the same.
~END~