FAA launches competition to replace ageing Traffic Flow Management System
September 25, 2025
The Federal Aviation Administration has launched a vendor challenge to replace its decades-old Traffic Flow Management System (TFMS) with a modern Flow Management Data and Services (FMDS) platform. The agency stated the new platform will help ensure the nation’s controllers have a scalable and sustainable tool to manage congestion in the National Airspace System.
US airspace faces challenges with the current TFMS
TFMS is used daily by air traffic controllers to plan traffic-flow initiatives, particularly during disruptions caused by weather, airport volume, runway closures, or staffing shortages; however, the current system is now decades old.
According to the FAA, the new FMDS “will provide a reliable traffic flow management (TFM) automation system by utilising modern architecture and infrastructure for better reliability, maintainability, and availability (RMA) to users and reduced response time, as compared to TFMS.” It will employ new technologies and a “new approach to software architecture and infrastructure” which will allow traffic flow activities to scale up to handle projected growth in air traffic.
The update will include “a streamlined interface for TFM automation system functions that will improve the user experience via an integrated situation awareness display.” The new FMDS interface will let users monitor “all traffic, traffic management initiatives (TMIs), and weather in one integrated application,” ensuring faster response to changing conditions.
“The new FMDS program will replace current technology that is decades-old and struggling with performance and maintainability issues,” said FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford in the FAA’s announcement. “If we want the gold standard of air traffic control, we need to give air traffic controllers the tools they need to succeed. We look forward to partnering with a company who will help achieve our goals of safety and efficiency in the National Airspace System.”
The program will benefit from air traffic control improvement funds allotted in President Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which passed in July.
FAA reauthorisation drives national airspace system modernisation
The replacement of TFMS follows a Congressional mandate in the 2024 FAA Reauthorisation Act for an overhaul of the technology that supports the national airspace system.
Transportation Secretary Sean P. Duffy announced plans to build a “brand new, state-of-the-art” air traffic control system earlier this year.
“Decades of neglect have left us with an outdated system that is showing its age,” Duffy said. “Building this new system is an economic and national security necessity, and the time to fix it is now.”
The FAA said it expects to select a prime integrator to lead the FMDS program by the end of October. Companies interested in participating should respond to a request posted on SAM.gov.
The FAA will evaluate responses to its vendor challenge in the coming weeks, with contract awards anticipated by late October.
The outcome of the FDMS platform program could help determine how quickly the U.S. can realise Secretary Duffy’s promise of a fully modernised, future-proofed air traffic control system.
