What happens to the FAA and air traffic control?

Texas would run its own civil-aviation authority and its own air traffic control, coordinated with the United States and the rest of the world the way every country's system already coordinates. Air traffic control is not a uniquely American function; it is a standard function every nation performs, and they all hand aircraft off to each other across borders every day. The planes keep flying on the same routes under the same global standards.

Air traffic control is something every country does, and they all connect

The single most important fact here is that air traffic control already works across borders. No country controls the whole sky. Each nation runs the airspace over its own territory and hands aircraft off to the next country's controllers at the boundary, cleanly, thousands of times a day. A flight from Europe to the United States passes through several countries' airspace before an American controller ever speaks to it. An independent Texas would run Texas airspace and hand off to US controllers at the border exactly as Canada and Mexico do now. The hand-off is the everyday normal of global aviation, not a problem to be solved.

Texas would stand up its own aviation authority, built to global standards

Every sovereign nation has a civil-aviation authority, the FAA's counterpart. Canada has one, the United Kingdom has one, every flying nation has one. An independent Texas would have its own, operating under the same ICAO standards that bind every member country, so Texas-certified aircraft, airports, and controllers are recognized worldwide. This is routine nation-state machinery, not a moonshot. Exactly how Texas organizes that authority is a decision for the future Texas government; what is certain is that the function is standard, well-defined, and performed by every country that has airplanes.

Safety certifications cross borders by agreement, and that system already exists

Here is the part that reassures pilots and airlines. The FAA already signs bilateral aviation safety agreements with other countries' authorities to mutually recognize airworthiness certifications and safety oversight, with partners like the European Union's aviation agency and Transport Canada; the first such agreement dates to 1995. That is how an aircraft certified in one country is accepted in another. An independent Texas would enter the same kind of agreement, so that Texas and US certifications recognize each other and aircraft move freely between the two. The mechanism for cross-border aviation safety is mature and in daily use; Texas steps into it.

Continuity is the goal, and the incentives guarantee it

Nobody benefits from disrupting the airspace. A safe, coordinated transition serves Texas, serves the United States, and serves every airline that flies the routes. The realistic path is a cooperative arrangement, very possibly including transitional support and shared procedures, that keeps the system running without a hiccup while Texas stands up its own authority. Both sides want the planes to keep flying safely. That shared interest, plus a global rulebook designed for exactly this, makes a smooth handover the expected outcome.

The bottom line

The FAA's functions become a Texas civil-aviation authority running Texas airspace, handing off to US controllers at the border the way every country already does, under global ICAO standards, with mutual safety recognition through the same kind of agreement the FAA already signs. Air traffic control crosses borders every day. Texas independence just adds one more friendly handoff.