As the air traffic system at Newark attracts attention for all the wrong reasons, the US government is pledging to update the country’s air traffic management network.

President Trump insists the system will be completely modernised, while transportation secretary Sean Duffy indicates a timescale of three to four years.

To say this is remarkably ambitious is an understatement. Air traffic control overhaul is extraordinarily complex, and notorious for being glacial in pace. At the end of last year the Government Accountability Office stated that over 100 of 138 US FAA air traffic control systems were unsustainable, or potentially unsustainable. Modernisation took “years to baseline” and “progressed slowly”, it added.

Airlines are still coping with their own modernisation delays, as supply-chain issues continue to hold up aircraft deliveries.

Emirates has again broadened an extensive cabin retrofit to a larger number of Boeing 777-300ERs, indicating the decision is based on prolonged timelines for fleet renewal – the carrier has dozens of 777-9s and -8s on order but their arrival schedule is still uncertain.

Air Canada’s first Boeing 787-10s and Airbus A321XLRs have also been pushed back. The airline is not expecting them until next year.

Airbus has again reverted to the sardonic term ‘gliders’ – used during an A320neo-family engine production crisis in 2017 – as a dip in the supply of powerplants for its single-aisle jets forces it to park the engineless airframes until they can be completed and delivered, a situation it expects will persist until the second half.

Rolls-Royce is aiming to expand capacity for Trent engine maintenance through a new overhaul centre to be established at Istanbul under a partnership with Turkish Technic – flag-carrier Turkish Airlines is a strong customer for the Trent XWB on its A350s but the centre will also handle Trent 7000 work.

Away from conventional aviation, innovators continue to progress with the unconventional. Vertical Aerospace has eyes on the defence and logistics sector with a longer-range version of its VX4 eVTOL – albeit with hybrid-electric rather than all-electric power. And Slovakia’s Klein Vision has unveiled a futuristic production design for its extraordinary ‘flying car’. Designers of any future air traffic control system might need to account for a notably different aviation environment.