ATC
FAA’s Wilbur To Improve Flight Delay Data Efficiencies
FAA completed an audit to strengthen NAS operations related to flight delays and cancellations
GAO cites hiring and training attrition and urges FAA to establish metrics, improve applicant status tools, and use collected data to guide changes.
Washington Air Route Traffic Control Center (ARTCC), in Leesburg Virginia, in 2005 © FAA

The FAA is implementing a new system, dubbed Wilbur, to identify inefficiencies across the National Airspace System (NAS) and modernize how flight delay data is used. In a memorandum released by the U.S. DOT late last week, the FAA outlined its plan to further implement Wilbur, a data solution introduced in 2022, to automate processes for collecting, validating, and improving data reliability and timeliness.

According to the FAA’s Air Traffic Organization’s Office of Performance Analysis (AJR-G), Wilbur will allow agency users to combine several data systems to access flight data in near-real time. An FAA audit of NAS operations between February 2025 and this month found that “reliance on manual entry, inconsistent reporting of delay causes, and manual data validation reduced the data’s reliability.”