US Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy says he has held aviation-focused talks with Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), suggesting that drastic change could come to the country’s civil aviation regulators.
“Big news,” Duffy said in a 5 February post on Musk’s social media platform, X. “Talked to the DOGE team. They are going to plug in to help upgrade our aviation system.”
Musk himself responded by saying that DOGE will make “rapid safety upgrades to the air traffic control system”.
Musk and Duffy’s declarations have drawn equal parts praise and alarm, with some warning against making hasty cuts to the Federal Aviation Administration and the US Department of Transportation, which together oversee the safety of the massively complex and ever-growing national airspace system.
Musk, who is not an elected government official, has been moving quickly to dismantle US government institutions unaligned with President Donald Trump’s political agenda in the weeks since Trump re-assumed control of the White House.
Reportedly working with a team of college-age aides, Musk has been gaining access to various government agencies and databases, including a Treasury Department system responsible for distributing billions of dollars. DOGE is facing a flurry of lawsuits in response.
Duffy’s post drew mixed reactions across social media, with the former Wisconsin state lawmaker engaging in a heated back-and-forth with former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
Clinton said on X that Musk’s aides “have no relevant experience” and that the FAA has “already deteriorated” under Trump’s administration.
Others suggested DOGE would bring about needed change at notoriously slow-moving regulatory bodies. Adam Goldstein, chief executive of air taxi developer Archer Aviation, responded by saying that “upgrading the technology that underpins the entire aviation system is way overdue”.
Indeed, the FAA relies on decades-old technology, which it has sought to upgrade through its long-delayed and costly NextGen system. DOGE has thus far focused not on agency reforms, but on axing the budgets of federally funded programmes in the name of cutting costs and reducing alleged fraud.
Most industry observers say that the FAA needs more rather than fewer resources. Air traffic controller (ATC) staffing levels are under a particularly bright spotlight following the deadly collision of a PSA Airlines regional jet and a US Army helicopter over Washington, DC.
The FAA has acknowledged for months that it needs more ATC workers to staff towers, particularly at congested airport hubs in the Northeast USA.
Duffy seems to support Trump’s unsupported claim that diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) hiring practices are to blame for the crash near Ronald Reagan National airport that killed 67 people.
Asked about “fixing the FAA” in a recent Fox News segment, Duffy – who was sworn into his new position the day before the midair collision that has shaken the aerospace industry – said that “we can’t stand to have these crashes”.
”These are unacceptable,” he says. ”[People] expect leadership from the Department of Transportation, to say, ’We don’t care about DEI, we don’t care about social justice, we don’t care about the environment. We care about safety.”
