University President Proposes Accelerated Training Program

It's no secret that a critical shortage of air traffic controllers is close at hand. What has been a secret is whether anyone has a real-time solution.

Enter Embry-Riddle President George Ebbs, who tells the Orlando Business Journal he might just have the key to solving this issue: an accelerated controller training program.

Ebb says his idea would not only put up to 600 more controllers in towers every year (right now, the government trains about 1,000 a year), but would actually save the government up to $20 million.

"We want to ramp up what we are able to do here to meet the nation's needs and save the government money," says Ebbs.

The General Accounting Office, Congress's investigative branch, says more than half the controller workforce will be gone by 2011. Blame the Reagan administration for firing PATCO controllers. Blame the lengthy training process each controller must undergo. For whatever reason, even by replacing every retiring controller with a new hire between now and then will still leave the government 1,300 controllers short.

Embry's ATC program is one of the biggest in the country, yet it only graduates about 100 new FAA candidates each year. Ebb wants Congress to allow his graduates to sidestep additional ATC training in Oklahoma City. His other big idea is to take candidates who already have a four-year college diploma and enroll them in what, for lack of a better word, would be ATC "graduate school."

"Within six months, they could be fully qualified to be full-time air traffic controllers. We could add 600 new controllers every year through the program," Ebbs says.

NATCA likes the idea. "We think accelerating the air traffic control portion after you get a four-year degree is a great idea," says NATCA Executive Vice President Ruth Marlin.

But Marlin warns, "The screening functions of the academy have been very effective. Before we skip over those, we need to evaluate the success rate of those that didn't go to the academy."

FMI: www.erau.edu