By Jacob Burg
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) on Aug. 7 unveiled updated plans to hire thousands of air traffic controllers by the end of the year, and nearly 9,000 by 2028, as the agency looks to dig itself out of a now decades-long shortage of workers who are among the most critical for aviation safety.
In a press release, the FAA said it anticipates hiring 2,000 new controller recruits in 2025 and at least 8,900 by 2028 under its Air Traffic Controller Workforce Plan. The agency’s Aviation Safety Workforce Plan similarly calls for hiring roughly 4,600 safety inspectors and engineers through 2034.
“The aviation ecosystem is rapidly evolving and the FAA must adapt to unprecedented changes,” FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford said. “Our success depends on highly skilled and dedicated air traffic control and aviation safety inspector workforces, and growing both is a top priority for the FAA.”
The FAA has been beset by a decades-long shortage of air traffic controllers, who are critical for directing and overseeing air traffic in and out of the nation’s busiest and most congested air spaces.
The issue dates to 1981, when then-President Ronald Reagan fired more than 11,000 air traffic controllers who were on strike, viewing it as an illegal strike. Months later, the Federal Labor Relations Authority (FLRA) decertified the only existing air traffic controller union, the Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization (PATCO), which was the first time in history that a national union was decertified.
While that union would soon be replaced by the National Air Traffic Controllers Association (NATCA) in 1987, and the FAA would eventually hire large numbers of new controllers, the agency never returned to its pre-1981 staffing levels.
In its Workforce Plan, the FAA said, “Hiring and training were again substantially disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic.” As The Epoch Times previously reported, this was due to many controllers seeking early retirement and issues with staffing, recruitment, and training centers.
The shortage was highlighted during negotiations in Congress over last year’s FAA Reauthorization Act, where more than $105 billion was invested in the FAA, including to set maximum hiring targets and staff standards to address the then-3,000-plus shortage of air traffic controllers.
This year’s deadly midair collision between an Army helicopter and a commercial jet near Ronald Reagan National Airport in Washington also put a microscope on the issue, as one controller was tasked with handling both airplanes and helicopters earlier than usual that night.
The FAA last week defended its staffing levels at the Reagan National control tower, but one of its contractors tasked with conducting compliance verifications said the staffing levels had “always been on the lower number … not necessarily healthy.”
The agency announced a “supercharged hiring initiative“ weeks after the incident. It streamlined the process of qualifying and referring more than 8,000 new candidates to the controller aptitude exam, which previously took 13 months from application to admission into the FAA academy.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy also announced a new package of actions in May to supercharge the controller workforce, including financial incentives such as rewards for academy graduates assigned to “hard to staff facilities” and expediting routine medical and security clearances.
The Department of Transportation, which oversees the FAA, “isn’t just solving today’s problems,” Duffy said. “By looking ahead and planning for the future of transportation, we can ensure America remains the global aerospace leader.
“Putting the best and brightest in our towers and in the field will allow us to make flying safer, reduce delays and cancellations, and bring about a Golden Age of travel,” he added.
To bring on new controller recruits, the FAA said it is “initiating a year-round hiring track for experienced controllers from the military and private industry,” filling all seats at the FAA academy, and increasing classroom capacity.
The agency will also deploy upgraded “Tower Simulation Systems“ at 95 of its facilities, which it says will reduce training times by up to 27 percent.
