Comment by legitster
2 months ago
No, but the problematic assessment in question was eliminated by congress in 2016. That would not explain the FAA's current recruitment problems.
2 months ago
No, but the problematic assessment in question was eliminated by congress in 2016. That would not explain the FAA's current recruitment problems.
ATC training and dropout rate is so long and high, that mistakes made 8-9 years ago could still be impactful.
COVID would likely have a bigger hand in the current issues than mistakes from 10-15 years ago though.
I found it somewhat puzzling we discuss ATC staffing and don't mention it:
https://www.ainonline.com/aviation-news/air-transport/2024-0...
> When training at the academy resumed in July 2020, after the four-month shutdown, class sizes were cut in half to meet the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s social distancing guidelines.
> The pandemic hit controller hiring and training hard with on-the-job training for developmental controllers significantly dropping at facilities, resulting in delayed certification. In fiscal year 2021, the controller hiring target was dropped from 910 to 500.
> Since then, the FAA has been working to restore the training pipeline to full capacity. The agency’s Controller Workforce 2023/2032 Plan had a hiring target of 1,020 in FY 2022 (actual hires were 1,026) and 1,500 in FY 2023. The is set to increase to 1,800 in the current fiscal year.
Yep, COVID didn't help either.
However, I'll note that hiring != actual ATC controllers because drop/fail rate which for some insane reason is so hard to find.
16 replies →
It wasn’t “Covid” — it was the vaccine mandate.