Also Says More Than 10,000 Will Leave Before 2015
On Thursday, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) released
an updated Air Traffic Controller Workforce Plan designed to
address anticipated retirement and replacement of air traffic
controllers over the coming decade. The revised document outlines
the agency's plans to hire more than 11,800 new air traffic
controllers over the next 10 years.
The plan is the first update to A Plan for the Future: The
Federal Aviation Administration's 10-year Strategy for the Air
Traffic Control Workforce, which the FAA released in December 2004.
The revised plan is based on updated traffic forecasts, experience
with productivity increases and actual retirements and improved
mathematical models.
"The controller workforce plan ensures that the FAA will have
the right number of controllers in place at the right time to
address the controller retirement bubble," said FAA Administrator
Marion C. Blakey. "We are focusing on all aspects of the process,
including recruitment, hiring, training and staffing
requirements."
As part of the revised plan, the FAA will hire 930 controllers
by the end of this fiscal year. The President has requested funding
as part of his 2007 budget request to allow the agency to hire more
than 1,130 additional controllers in fiscal year 2007. The plan
notes that hiring more than 2,000 controllers over the next two
years will allow the agency to replace departing controllers and
increase the size of its workforce by more than 200
controllers.
The plan also addresses the broader need to hire more than
11,800 controllers over the next 10 years based on the latest
attrition and traffic growth modeling done by the agency. It
outlines how the agency will bring on these new controllers using a
schedule designed to provide adequate training lead-time and to
address changing air traffic demands over the coming decade.
The agency noted that it has begun hiring and training new
controllers, having already hired more than 700 candidates this
year. The current pool of controller candidates from various hiring
sources exceeds 3,700, which is sufficient to meet staffing needs
for the next several years.
The FAA currently expects that more than 10,000 controllers will
leave the work force between now and 2015 through retirements,
promotions and other forms of attrition. Attrition estimates are
expected to be more precise with each annual update of the plan,
due to updated traffic forecasts, retirement numbers and refined
mathematical models.