FAA’s Net Controller Count May Only Climb by 10% of Targets

Airlines for America sees a pretty active summer coming up, with more than 271 million passengers expected to use US carriers around the world - but the horizon isn't totally free of clouds.

The advocacy group spoke to reporters about the somewhat distressing trend of understaffing among air traffic controllers, a long-running bugbear of the industry. The good news is that the staffing shortfall has increasingly come to the fore for government personnel and industry folk. The bad news is that it stems from a series of near-incidents that could prove fatal to the traveling public. After a few high-profile screwups, people start to ask questions, and the bandaid fixes may not be the long-term repairs the industry had thought.

Digging into the numbers, it seems the FAA has brought on just a dozen more controllers than it had targeted in 2023, at 1,512. Thanks to attrition, national ATC lost more than 1,300 employees, accounting for retirements and drop-outs from the industry. After running the numbers to account for those in training, those who will likely wash out of ATC school, and drop out in line with historic trends, and the math works out to maybe a tenth of what the FAA had needed just to maintain ranks. If it all hashes out that way, then the FAA will only see about 160 net ATC employees in the most recent hiring round, not at all the kind of numbers we need to see in order to add operational buffer space to towers across the land.

In talking to one media outlet, Airlines for America said the current zeitgeist is "fundamentally broken if it takes this long to hire and train controllers." Their constituent companies know the traveling public, too. Fear is fatal to airline's bottom line, and the average airline passenger is much happier not thinking about the complex dance of traffic happening above their heads. If the controller industry could staff themselves to the max, everyone could breathe just a tad easier, knowing everyone in the tower is well-rested and fit for duty.

"We are particularly concerned as our carriers have been working diligently to meet record summer travel in the coming weeks, and carriers have had to cut back their schedules in congested areas to accommodate the ATC shortage at the expense of travelers who are seeing fewer flight options in those markets." 

FMI: www.airlines.org