Skift Take
The U.S. government needs to step up if it wants to ease the air traffic controller shortage that is snarling flights and slowing growth.
Business as usual at the Federal Aviation Administration isn't enough to dig out of the national air traffic controller shortage affecting flights across the U.S.
A new report from the FAA found that at current hiring and training levels, the agency will only have roughly 200 more air traffic controllers in 2032 than it does today.
Hiring targets call for 1,500 new controllers this year and another 1,800 in 2024. But that will barely make for retirements and others leaving the job. It “does not adequately satisfy system needs with regard to complexity, growth, and trajectory," the report found.
The shortage contribute to aviation safety concerns, as does increases in absenteeism an