Two small US airports now have air traffic control without a classic glass-topped tower. On 6 November 2026 the FAA announced that digital towers are up and running at Bartow Executive Airport in Florida and Kenai Municipal Airport in Alaska.
Instead of looking out of a window, controllers watch a 360-degree picture put together from high-definition cameras, sensors and screens. Infrared cameras, aircraft tags and microphones can be added on top. Bartow has been using its system since September.
The idea isn’t brand new. Leesburg in Virginia trialled a camera-based remote tower from 2018, but the project ended in June 2023 when the supplier, Saab, pulled out of the approval process. This time the FAA has given its first system design approval to Frequentis and its smartVISION system, for now covering single-runway airports in Class D airspace.
Five more airports are next on the list, paid for from a 50 million dollar budget: Winter Haven and Venice in Florida, Montgomery County Airpark in Maryland, Johnston Regional in North Carolina and Durango-La Plata County in Colorado.
If it all works as planned, pilots on the radio won’t notice much. The voice answering them just comes from someone sitting in front of a very big screen.
Source: AVweb (Matt Ryan), 6 November 2026
Photo (Kenai Municipal Airport from the air): FAA Alaska Region / Wikimedia Commons, public domain