FAA to Hire 12,500 Air Traffic Controllers to Replace Retirees

WASHINGTON — With three-quarters of the nation’s air traffic controllers expected to retire over the next decade, the Federal Aviation Administration on Tuesday announced plans to hire 12,500 replacements to become the next generation of workers charged with safeguarding the skies.

As part of the plan, the agency expects to shrink the time it takes to train controllers from the present three to five years to only two to three. It will also offer some current controllers an opportunity to continue working past the mandatory retirement age of 56.

The union that represents all 15,000 FAA air traffic controllers harshly criticized the government’s blueprint as inadequate.

But FAA Administrator Marion C. Blakey said the plan would “put the right number of controllers in the right place at the right time.”

“It’s a guarantee that we’re going to have a highly skilled group of professionals guiding our planes through America’s skies through the 21st century,” she added.

The staffing challenge facing the FAA is a legacy of President Reagan’s decision to fire more than 10,000 striking air traffic controllers on one day in 1981. Their replacements will become eligible to retire en masse during the next 10 years. FAA officials said the problem is complicated by tight federal budgets caused by expansive deficits and the war in Iraq.

National Air Traffic Controllers Assn. President John Carr said the Bush administration had delayed dealing with the approaching staffing problem, and as a result, there are already personnel shortfalls. He said the shortage of air traffic controllers would become more critical before the agency is able to train replacements.

For example, the Los Angeles Air Route Traffic Control Center is operating with 201 certified controllers on the job, about one-third fewer than the 310 the FAA has authorized as the optimum number to work at the facility, according to Hamid Ghaffari, the union’s facility representative at the center.

Although 500 controllers left the FAA during the last year, Congress appropriated enough money in 2004 to train only 13 new air traffic controllers, according to Russ Chew, the FAA’s chief operating officer.

But Chew, countering the union’s criticism, said, “If we execute this plan, we will not be short of certified air traffic controllers when we need them.”

Rep. John L. Mica (R-Fla.), chairman of the House subcommittee on aviation, predicted that Congress would be more likely to provide funds for training controllers now that the FAA has proposed an “excellent blueprint” for addressing the staffing turnover.

But Rep. Peter A. DeFazio of Oregon, the ranking Democrat on the subcommittee, criticized the administration for failing to address the question of how to pay for the new controllers’ training.

“There is one glaring omission in this report -- funding,” said DeFazio. “Hiring and training 12,500 new controllers will be challenging and expensive. The Republican Congress and the president have already caused great delay and compounded the problem.”

Mica also applauded the FAA for coming up with a policy that would allow some controllers to stay on the job after age 56. The plan would permit controllers to get annual waivers of the mandatory retirement date if they are exceptional performers and in good health.

But the union’s Carr said allowing controllers to stay on the job after 56 was one of the many flaws in the government’s plan. He said the requirement to retire at 56 reflects that sight, hearing and ability to exercise three-dimensional thinking decline with age. It would be risky for the FAA to allow controllers to work “beyond their prime air traffic controlling years,” Carr said.

Union officials also criticized the agency’s proposal to allow more controllers to work part time and on split shifts to help deal with the crunch, and Carr expressed skepticism that the FAA can effectively reduce training time.

They also scoffed at a suggestion by FAA officials that using more simulators would reduce training time, saying that the FAA has not asked Congress for money to buy more. They also said the assertion that controllers can be trained more quickly neglects the reality of the demanding on-the-job training controllers experience.

“You can’t shortcut the learning process,” said Mike Foote, an air traffic controller at the tower at Los Angeles International Airport and local president of the National Air Traffic Controllers Assn. “You have to wait until you can work that traffic safely before we let you take the position. To do otherwise would be irresponsible.”

The staffing shortages at some control towers, such as the Los Angeles Air Route Traffic Control Center in Palmdale, mean there aren’t enough senior controllers to train new hires, compounding scheduling problems, said Ghaffari, the union’s facility rep at the center.

“Unfortunately, for the past several years ... we’ve had dialogue and correspondence with the FAA administrator warning her of the impending controller staffing crisis in Palmdale,” Ghaffari said. “This is too little, too late for us.”

FAA Administrator Blakey said the agency has 5,000 candidates for the highly skilled, high-paying jobs. On average, air traffic controllers earn $118,000 a year, and the most highly paid earn $160,000, according to the FAA.

In most cases, applicants cannot be older than 31 and must pass a grueling, eight-hour exam called the Air Traffic Selection and Training test, which assesses a variety of aptitudes, such as tolerance for high-intensity work, numeric ability, visualization and problem-solving.

“I think we’re not going to have any difficulty finding people to step up,” Blakey said.

Shogren reported from Washington and Oldham from Los Angeles.