Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg is in Los Angeles this week touting federal investment in several big infrastructure projects, from modernizing and electrifying the Port of Los Angeles to launching construction on 2028 Olympics venues.
He was forced to put all of that on hold Friday morning because of the global Microsoft systems outage. In an exclusive interview with KNX News, he addressed the vulnerabilities of the country’s air traffic control systems, saying that residual complications could continue throughout the day and weekend.
“The airlines are working through it,” Buttigieg said. “Different airlines were able to address the issue some quicker than others, but just because of the way the network works and how tightly scheduled flights are, even when an issue is addressed early in the morning hours, it can cascade through the day and into the evening.”
Buttigieg said that while going digital has made air traffic control and airline reservation systems far more efficient, it also makes them more vulnerable to glitches, human error, and cyberattacks.
“We need to engage private actors, local actors and state actors, to make sure that whatever they control is secure and robust,” he said. “And I think there are going to be a lot of conversations in the days to come about resiliency and redundancy as people rightly ask, how can one glitch in one software system create this many cascading impacts around the world?”
While Biden’s infrastructure package funded major upgrades to the country’s airport infrastructure, Buttigieg said there’s still work to be done.
“We've seen good progress, but it's just not going to be possible to cope with the growth in air travel demand or frankly even to maintain the current standard that people expect unless we invest in the future,” he said. “That means systems, infrastructure, and critically, it means people, the staffing side of things.”
For airline passengers who were stranded due to the outage, Buttigieg said to check the Department of Transportation website to find out about the protections they’re entitled to when it comes to rebooking flights.
"This is something that the airlines are responsible for addressing and I've been on making sure the airlines hear that message," he said in a separate interview with KNX News' Karen Adams.
The transportation secretary also reassured voters who are worried about President Joe Biden’s seemingly diminished capacities after a worrying debate performance and ensuing series of gaffes.
“I’m not out to claim that he’s not 10 years older than he was 10 years ago, but I do want people to know that any time he has been needed to weigh in or guide … he has demonstrated the leadership that that the department and that I have had been counting on as a cabinet member,” Buttigieg said.
He added that despite Biden repeatedly mixing up the names of his friends and enemies, he’s “really good at being president.”
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Buttigieg also touched on the complicated transition to electric vehicles, the value of closing streets, and why community input is important in reimagining our transit systems. Listen to the full interview above.
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