FAA head defends air traffic improvements which Trump called 'out of whack'

Federal Aviation Administration, or FAA, chief Michael Huerta has spoken up about his agency's efforts to improve its air traffic control system despite harsh criticism from President Trump.

According to The Hill, on Thursday, Huerta was at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce aviation summit when he said, "While I'll be the first to acknowledge that we'd all like to move faster, I also firmly believe that any fair review of the past few years makes clear that our work together has been critical to the success of the tremendous progress we have made to revamp our air traffic system with the latest technologies."

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He also noted, "The FAA can demonstrate that it has already delivered more than $2.72 billion in benefits under the NextGen modernization umbrella. We expect that number to climb to $160 billion by 2030."

According to the FAA's website, NextGen is "a comprehensive suite of state-of-the-art technologies and procedures" intended to "enhance safety and improve efficiency in our nation's airspace."

Despite accounts that these improvements are making a difference at airports, President Trump blasted the plan at a meeting with industry executives last month.

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He reportedly said, "I hear the government contracted for a system that's the wrong system. I hear we're spending billions and billions of dollars. It's a system that's totally out of whack. It's way over budget. It's way behind schedule. And when it's complete, it's not going to be a good system."

In the past, Trump has repeatedly slammed the nation's infrastructure including airports, emphasizing the need for improvements.

According to the Huffington Post, in one of the presidential debates, he commented, "Our airports are like from a Third World country...You land at LaGuardia, you land at Kennedy, you land at LAX, you land at Newark, and you come in from Dubai and Qatar and you see these incredible ― you come in from China, you see these incredible airports, and you land ― we've become a Third World country."