FAA to Outfit All Its Airport Vehicles With Transponders

The FAA said Wednesday it will use $16.5 million from the One Big Beautiful Bill Act to install transponders on all of its airport vehicles.

The move is expected to help air traffic controllers (ATCs) identify and track agency vehicles on runways and taxiways.

Aviation regulators are stepping up efforts to track ground vehicles following a fatal collision between an Air Canada aircraft and a firefighting truck at LaGuardia Airport (KLGA) in New York in March. The truck, which had been cleared to cross a runway where the jet was landing, was not equipped with a transponder.

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is investigating the incident.

The FAA said it is also reminding airports that they can use federal grant money to equip their own vehicles with transponders. More than 50 airports have expressed interest in doing so, officials said.

“Vehicle Movement Area Transmitters (VMATs) help prevent dangerous runway incidents and by accelerating the deployment of this technology, we’re closing critical visibility gaps on our nation’s runways and taxiways,” FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford said in a news release. “This initiative is yet another example of our commitment to proactive safety improvements and strong collaboration across the aviation community.”

VMATs track vehicles at airports that have surface surveillance systems, such as ASDE-X and ASSC. The FAA said it will immediately begin equipping its roughly 1,900 vehicles at the 44 U.S. airports that already have ASDE-X and ASSC, as well as the 220 airports that have or will receive Surface Awareness Initiative (SAI) surveillance systems.