Lower than 10% of the nation’s airport terminal towers have sufficient air site visitors controllers to satisfy a set of requirements set by a working group that included the Federal Aviation Administration and the controllers’ union, in response to a CBS Information evaluation of FAA knowledge.
The problem has acquired renewed scrutiny following Wednesday night time’s midair collision between an American Airways flight and a Black Hawk Military helicopter close to Reagan Nationwide Airport outdoors Washington, D.C., that killed 67 folks.
Just one air site visitors management employee was managing the helicopters and a few planes from the Reagan Nationwide Airport tower on the time of the collision, a job usually accomplished by two folks, two sources instructed CBS Information Thursday.
Solely about 2% of the towers met the Collaborative Useful resource Working Group’s 2024 staffing targets for the variety of fully-trained air site visitors controllers. Solely about 8% met the goal even when together with a whole bunch of air site visitors controllers who’re nonetheless in coaching, in response to the evaluation of 2023 staffing knowledge for almost 200 airport towers.
Moreover, not one of the nation’s Air Route Visitors Management Facilities that dealt with high-altitude “en route” site visitors had sufficient fully-trained controllers to satisfy the targets both.
The info, from the tip of fiscal yr 2023, was printed within the FAA’s Air Visitors Controller Workforce Plan, an annual report back to Congress on the standing of the company’s efforts to beat a decades-long wrestle to recruit and retain sufficient controllers to maintain Individuals secure whereas flying. The info reveals staffing on the finish of fiscal yr 2023.
Nationwide, the working group’s goal for controllers was about 14,600, the report discovered. Counting solely fully-trained controllers, the nation’s air site visitors system is at about 72% of that concentrate on. It’s at 87% if trainees are included. That’s about 3,000 to 4,000 controllers in need of the targets, relying on whether or not the a whole bunch “in training” are counted.
Within the report, the FAA cites the COVID-19 pandemic as one of many causes it has struggled to satisfy workers enlargement objectives at air site visitors management services throughout the nation.
“The COVID-19 pandemic has had substantial impact on the aviation industry and the FAA,” the company mentioned in its report. “At the onset of the pandemic, in order to protect employees and help ensure continuity of operations, certain activities were eliminated or significantly reduced at FAA’s air traffic control (ATC) facilities.”
OLIVER CONTRERAS/AFP through Getty Photographs
The company additionally famous that “on-the-job training of developmental air traffic controllers was significantly reduced,” in addition to hiring targets. The company mentioned that had a big impression on its efforts to develop fully-trained controllers.
The staffing targets within the report are objectives based mostly on an evaluation by a bunch that included FAA’s Air Visitors Group in addition to the controllers’ labor union, the Nationwide Air Visitors Controllers Affiliation.
The FAA additionally included within the report its personal inner staffing requirements for every facility. Utilizing that customary, which is decrease for a lot of services than the working group’s targets, 45% of the airport towers met the usual, counting solely fully-trained controllers. If all controllers in coaching are included, 59% of the airports met the decrease FAA customary.
“If we hired 2,000 people today, in two, three years from now, we’d see only about 1,000 of them become a certified air traffic controller,” Nationwide Air Visitors Controllers Affiliation president Nick Daniels instructed CBS Information.
Tim McNicholas and
contributed to this report.
