The US is replacing old radio navigation with satellite routes in the eastern US

The US Federal Aviation Administration proposes to establish two new satellite-based navigation routes and amend three existing radio beacon routes. This change is happening because a key radio beacon in North Carolina is being decommissioned.

For decades, airplanes navigated using a network of ground-based radio beacons. The US is slowly phasing out these older systems and replacing them with satellite-based navigation, which is more precise and requires less ground infrastructure. This specific change means pilots flying in the eastern US will rely more on GPS and less on signals from the ground.