Amid bustling passengers and busy ticket counters, U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, on Tuesday laid out details of a federal appropriation to introduce upgrades to Austin-Bergstrom International Airport and billions to strengthen air travel in the Lone Star State.

The ranking member of the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, which shepherded the Federal Aviation Administration Reauthorization Act of 2024, Cruz touted the $105 billion package as an effort to bolster on-the-ground technology at airports across the country, modernize equipment and infrastructure and protect passengers.

Signed into law May 16 by President Joe Biden, the legislation will fund the FAA through 2028 and will begin an initial series of safety investments at airports across the country, including Austin.

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The biggest wins, Cruz said during a news conference Tuesday, will be new runway tracking technology soon to be introduced in Austin, a new direct flight between San Antonio and Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport and provisions to ensure airports have enough air traffic controllers.

“This bill is not overtly partisan on one side or the other. We didn’t go with any crazy right-wing or crazy left-wing ideas,” Cruz said. “Listen, everybody wants aviation safety, everyone wants their kids to arrive safely where they’re going. Everyone wants the aviation sector to be more efficient, to be more effective, for consumers to have lower prices, and so we focused on areas of agreement.”

In total, Texas’ airports from Midland to Corpus Christi will receive $4 billion in federal funds through the bipartisan package for infrastructure projects and improvements, Cruz said.

Last year, more than 22 million passengers traveled through Austin’s airport — over 1 million more passengers than the previous record of just over 21 million in 2022, a record Cruz said influenced the investment in Central Texas’ airspace.

“This airport moves in designation from what’s considered a midsized airport to a large airport because of the volume of traffic,” Cruz said, complimenting Austin airport officials for handling the travel influx. “And that’s directly driven by all the people coming to Austin, coming to Central Texas, all the companies moving their headquarters here and the traffic that is coming in.”

‘Close calls’ in Austin

Specifically, the FAA Reauthorization Act will deploy “surface situational awareness technologies” — a technology known as Airport Surface Detection Equipment, or ASDE-X — to track runway activity in hopes of avoiding collisions and the near misses experienced in Austin.

“We are grateful to our partners at the FAA for prioritizing Austin airport as one of the first airports in the nation to receive this equipment,” said Ghizlane Badawi, CEO of Austin-Bergstrom, during the news conference.

The installation of the technology is expected to begin in July, Cruz said.

Austin has seen multiple “close calls” over the past year, including a Southwest flight waiting for takeoff in February 2023 that was nearly hit by a FedEx cargo plane, which came within 100 feet of the passenger plane on the runway upon landing.

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In September, the pilot of a Cessna Citation jet took evasive action after receiving an onboard proximity alert about a nearby F/A-18 fighter. The fighter also flew near a light, propeller-powered plane that was preparing for takeoff on a nearby runway. The pilot of the private jet made an evasive maneuver to steer clear of the fighter as both tried to land at the Austin airport, an FAA spokesperson said in October.

Cruz highlighted those near “utterly tragic” incidents as an issue lawmakers and federal officials were focused on addressing through the aviation omnibus bill.

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“I can’t count how many thousands of times I’ve sat on a Southwest plane getting ready to take off, and I don’t think it’s ever once occurred to me that a jet might land on top of us,” Cruz said, emphasizing the need for new tracking technology.

Women in aviation, right to refund

Outside of safety concerns, the bipartisan package creates a new Women in Aviation Advisory Committee within the U.S. Department of Transportation to encourage more women to join the aviation industry.

Additionally, Republicans and Democrats have touted the legislation’s provisions tied to passengers, which ensures those who experience delays during travel are entitled to ticket refunds. Mirroring language recently introduced by the Transportation Department, passengers now have a statutory right to a hassle-free refund when an airline cancels or significantly delays a flight.

Significant changes to a flight include departure or arrival times that are more than three hours domestically and six hours internationally; departures or arrivals from a different airport; increases in the number of connections; instances where passengers are downgraded to a lower class of service; or connections at different airports or flights on different planes that are less accessible or accommodating to a person with a disability, according to the Transportation Department.

The new law also prohibits airlines from issuing fees for those seeking family seating arrangements.

“Passengers shouldn’t have to jump through endless hoops just to get the refunds that they are owed, and corporations shouldn’t rip off hardworking Americans through hidden junk fees,” Biden said in a statement celebrating the bill’s passage this month. “I want to thank members of both parties who worked together over many months to pass this long-term reauthorization”

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Further earmarks under the FAA Reauthorization bill include:

• $66.7 billion for FAA operations to fund key safety programs, from aircraft certification reform to air carrier oversight, and enable the hiring, training and retention of safety-critical staff like air traffic controllers and engineers.
• $17.8 billion for facilities and equipment modernization of key technologies and systems to “ensure the resilience and development of the world’s most complex airspace system.”
• $19.35 billion for airport infrastructure improvement grants to support more than 3,300 airports nationwide. 
• $1.59 billion for research, engineering and development to help America keep competitive in the global race for innovative and sustainable aerospace technology.
• $738 million in appropriations for the National Transportation Safety Board for fiscal 2024 through 2028.