WSJ What’s News - What It Would Take to Fix U.S. Air-Traffic Control

Episode Date: May 6, 2025

P.M. Edition for May 6. A series of tech problems has exposed cracks in U.S. air-traffic control systems. WSJ aviation safety reporter Andrew Tangel discusses what it would take to fix them. Plus, President Trump says he’s reached a truce with the Houthi militant group in Yemen. And America’s trade deficit hit a record in March, as businesses stocked up ahead of the sweeping tariffs Trump imposed the following month. Alex Ossola hosts. Sign up for the WSJ's free What's News newsletter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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control is in need of an overhaul. The state of the system is really a function of years and years of neglect. It is a question about whether or not this administration that is focused on slimming down in many ways can beef up a very anemic and neglected system that everyone seems to think is long overdue for an overhaul. And President Trump says he's reached a truce with Houthi militants in Yemen. It's Tuesday, May 6th. I'm Alex Osole for The Wall Street Journal.

This is the PM edition of What's News, the top headlines and business stories that move the world today. The U.S. trade deficit ballooned 14 percent to a record $140.5 billion in March, as businesses stockpiled goods before President Trump's Liberation Day tariffs took effect. According to data from the Census Bureau, nearly all of the surge in imported consumer goods for the month were pharmaceutical products, which the Trump administration is currently considering hitting with tariffs. Imports of computer accessories, automobiles, and car parts and engines also increased.

Republican lawmakers are looking to make President Trump's campaign slogan of no tax on overtime a reality. Today, Kansas Senator Roger Marshall introduced a bill that could become part of Republicans' giant tax and spending bill supporting President Trump's agenda. But the overtime proposal would come with limits. Some top earners would be denied the deduction, and it would be calved at $10,000 for individuals and $20,000 for married couples. Marshall doesn't have an official revenue estimate yet for his proposal. The U.S. Supreme Court has reinstated the Trump administration's ban on transgender individuals serving in the military, setting aside a federal judge's finding that the blanket exclusion violated the Constitution's equal protection guarantee.

The court's order allows the administration to begin discharging transgender service members and to deny enlistment to new ones while litigation over the ban proceeds in lower courts. In business news, the food delivery company DoorDash posted a first quarter profit of $193 million today from a loss of $23 million a year earlier. Separately, DoorDash struck a deal to acquire British food delivery company Deliveroo for

roughly £3 billion, or nearly $3.9 billion. It's a move intended to help San Francisco-based DoorDash expand its global presence, as competitor Uber Eats has done in Europe. DoorDash already owns BALT, its Finnish subsidiary. Clément Genelot, an analyst at Brian Garnier, told me that the DoorDash-Deliveroo deal comes with very little antitrust risk because the two companies don't operate in the same countries. The two players are not active in the same markets. Leveroo is only in OK, France, Italy, Belgium,

and some markets in the Middle East, while Wolt, which belongs to Nord-Ash, is more active in Germany and the northern part of Europe and the eastern part of Europe. Over the last few months, it has become quite clear that the US players in the food online space will be able to really become much more active on M&A. But bear in mind that not all US players are really able to engage in such kind of M&A only because

of antitrust. And in this case, Europe is a little constrained because it is already quite big for Europe. The transaction is subject to shareholder approval and is expected to go into effect during the fourth quarter. Major US indexes declined today as market jitters over trade returned. The Dow fell almost 400 points, or about 1%. The Nasdaq dipped roughly 0.9%. And the S&P 500 slid about 0.8%. Coming up, President Trump says he's reached a ceasefire

with Yemen's Houthis and what it would take to fix U.S. air traffic control. That's after the break. If only life had a remote control, you could pause or rewind. the break. Last week, thousands of passengers flying into or out of Newark Liberty International Airport struggled to reach their destinations. Dozens of flights were delayed or diverted because of a tech outage. For air traffic controllers, the experience was frightening. They temporarily lost contact with pilots, radar screens went dark, and backup systems failed.

Fortunately, the outage didn't result in a crash, but it's the latest in a series of air traffic control issues making US airspace more dangerous. And it comes after January's deadly collision between an Army helicopter and a jet in Washington, DC. Andrew Tangle, who covers aviation safety for the journal, is here to tell us more. Andrew, what are the issues air traffic controllers

are dealing with? The air traffic control system is this vast nationwide network of radars and navigation aids and air traffic control facilities. But a lot of the equipment is really old and the state of the system is really a function of years and years of neglect. You essentially have a system that is starved with resources that has had a lot

of political interference with its ability to get money and its ability to spend money. And the results is that the Federal Aviation Administration spends like 90% or more of its budget for technology and equipment on maintaining old systems that are in many cases obsolete or nearing obsolescence. Last year, the Government Accountability Office issued a report and said basically about three quarters of the FAA's air traffic systems were either obsolete or too difficult to reliably maintain. The price tag really isn't clear for how much this broad overhaul might cost, but there are estimates within the industry and the government that put the costs somewhere between

$20 billion and 40 billion dollars. Sounds like not a great state of affairs for a network that's charged with keeping us safe in the air. What is the Trump administration doing about this? Trump's transportation secretary, Sean Duffy, has made this a top priority. He wants a new state of the art, end of the world air traffic control system. He knows it's gonna be expensive, difficult to pull off in a short time frame, especially how he's gonna pay for it,

how it's gonna work. All these other questions are to be determined. The funding question is what has hobbled the Federal Aviation Administration and Department of Transportation over the years. He says he's got Trump's enthusiastic backing to do something big and bold and transformational for the system and can set that up for success where others have failed in the past. I'm particularly curious about that because, of course, the Trump administration famously is cutting government spending or trying to and doesn't seem super keen

on spending a lot of money on new government programs. The federal government has been cutting costs and cutting its workforce, but not the air travel control organization. They have exempted air traffic controllers from workforce cuts and early retirement programs. They are trying to, quote unquote, surge hiring and try to retain the air traffic controllers, keep them from retiring by offering them bonuses. So it is a question about whether or not this administration that is focused on slimming down in many ways can beef up a very anemic and neglected system that everyone seems to

think is long overdue for an overall. That was WSJ reporter Andrew Tangle. Thank you, Andrew. Thanks for having me. In international news, speaking from the Oval Office today, President Trump said that the U.S. had reached a truce with the Houthis in Yemen and would suspend its airstrikes on the militant group. He claimed the Houthis would no longer target ships navigating Middle Eastern waters.

They were knocking out a lot of ships going, as you know, sailing beautifully down the various seas. It wasn't just a canal, it was a lot of other places. And I will accept their word and we are going to stop the bombing of the Houthis. Oman said it helped the U.S. mediate a truce between Israel and the Houthis in which the two sides agreed not to target each other, and the militant group said it would stop firing on shipping lanes in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden.

The U.S. has struck more than 1,000 targets during Operation Rough Rider, which has lasted weeks. Meanwhile, Israeli warplanes hit the main airport controlled by the Houthis today. It was Israel's second day of retaliatory strikes after the group struck Tel Aviv's Ben Gurion airport. In a statement out today, the Houthi political bureau didn't mention a ceasefire with the US and reiterated that its military moves against Israel would continue until the war in Gaza ends.

In Germany, parliament voted to make Friedrich Merz the country's chancellor after a first vote failed. This was the first time in Germany's post-World War II history that a candidate needed a second attempt to secure parliament's endorsement. Since the vote is secret and no dissenters have come forward, to history that a candidate needed a second attempt to secure parliament's endorsement. Since the vote is secret and no dissenters have come forward, it isn't clear why a dozen members of Mertz's proposed coalition didn't back him in the first vote.

While plans for Mertz's rise to power were only delayed for a few hours, analysts say he will start his term as a weakened figure. Texas has a new town that's a bit different from the rest. On Saturday, 218 people voted to incorporate a handful of SpaceX rocket facilities and housing near Brownsville, Texas, as a municipality called Starbase. Micah Maidenberg, who covers the business of space for the journal, told our tech news briefing podcast why the company's activities in the area are controversial. SpaceX industrialized the landscape, so to speak, built this enormous factory,

added other production sites and added testing facilities for really powerful rockets. And that's upset a lot of people. There are folks that are really frustrated with beach closures. There are folks that claim SpaceX is not a good steward of the local environment. SpaceX pushes back on that idea very strongly. And then there are a lot of people in Cameron County who are working at SpaceX and who have businesses that are tied to Starbase. And those economic opportunities have generated a lot of support from a lot of people in the

region, in the county, and among elected officials. Starbase more broadly is part of the Rio Grande Valley, which historically has been among the poorest in the country. For more from Micah, listen to today's episode of Tech News Briefing. And even if you can't hop on a SpaceX rocket headed for Mars, you might need a little extra something just to fly within the United States. I'm talking about Real ID. Starting tomorrow, U.S. travelers over 18 will need to present the Security Enhanced

ID to board a domestic flight or face additional screening. Allison Pooley, who covers travel for the journal, told our Your Money Briefing podcast about what to expect at the airport. Don't panic if you don't have a real ID yet. You'll still be able to get one after May 7th. But if you do have a flight that day, you'll need to bring a passport, even if you're not going internationally. It'll be a domestic flight and you'll need to show a real ID credentialed document. That also can include a global entry card

or an enhanced driver's license, but you do need to show something that is the equivalent level of verification as a real ID. And that's what's news for this Tuesday afternoon. Today's show is produced by Anthony Bansi. Our supervising producer was Pierre Bienamé. I'm Alex Osila for The Wall Street Journal. We'll be back with a new show tomorrow morning.

Thanks for listening.