WASHINGTON, Nov 20 (Reuters) - The Federal Aviation

Administration said on Thursday it wants to adopt a new

comprehensive system to overhaul how air traffic controllers

receive flight data and move aircraft between facilities.

Congress in July approved a $12.5 billion plan to overhaul

the nation's aging air traffic control system, and boost

controller hiring following decades of complaints over airport

congestion and flight delays. Transportation Secretary Sean

Duffy has said he wants an additional $19 billion from Congress

for air traffic control reform.

Duffy has said the FAA has been forced at times to go to

eBay ( EBAY ) to get spare parts and tech woes repeatedly snarled traffic

this summer.

A government report last year said 51 of its 138 air traffic

control telecommunications systems were unsustainable.

The FAA said it wants proposals to replace the current en

route and terminal systems with a single, state-of-the-art

platform for air traffic control called the Common Automation

Platform.

The FAA currently uses two systems - En Route Automation

Modernization (ERAM) and Standard Terminal Automation

Replacement System (STARS) - to track and control aircraft.

ERAM manages high-altitude flights at the FAA's 20 Air Route

Traffic Control Centers, providing data for aircraft navigation

between airports. STARS tracks flights near airports in Terminal

Radar Approach Control, or TRACON, facilities and air traffic

control towers.

The STARS system is used for sequencing planes, issuing

conflict alerts and weather updates for arriving and departing

aircraft.

The FAA wants to unify the platforms into a single, modern

system and the agency previously sought input for a new runway

safety lighting system to modernize the air traffic flow system.

In September, the FAA told Reuters it has two candidates

vying to become the project manager of the multi-billion-dollar

air traffic control overhaul effort known as the "prime

integrator."

Peraton, a national security company owned by Veritas

Capital, bid for the position as did Parsons, a technology

provider in national security and global infrastructure markets,

which partnered with IBM ( IBM ).

Duffy said this week he and FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford

need to meet with President Donald Trump in the coming weeks

before a selection is made.