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Testimony

Date

Key Issues Facing FAA’s Air Traffic Controller Workforce

Requested By
Testimony Before the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, Subcommittee on Aviation
Project ID
CC2016010
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At the Subcommittee’s hearing on the Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) air traffic controller hiring, staffing, and training plans, the Assistant Inspector General for Aviation Audits testified on three areas involving FAA’s controller workforce: (1) FAA’s progress and challenges addressing its controller staffing levels at the Agency’s most critical facilities; (2) FAA’s implementation of its new hiring process; and (3) significant workforce issues that require top FAA management attention and action.

The Assistant Inspector General testified that FAA faces challenges ensuring it has enough fully certified controllers to effectively balance controller training requirements with pending retirements, especially at its most critical facilities. This is in part because FAA does not consider facility-specific information when anticipating future retirements, and lacks sufficient data to determine how many controllers it needs. In addition, the Assistant Inspector General stated that FAA recently introduced a new process for hiring controllers but lacked an effective implementation strategy for the new policies. While it is too soon to assess the overall impact of the new hiring policies, the Agency continues to fall short of its hiring goals due to the lengthy process it takes to hire and train a controller. Finally, the Assistant Inspector General noted that there are several issues that will materially affect the controller workforce going forward that require senior FAA management attention. These include effectively implementing a new scheduling tool, integrating Unmanned Aircraft Systems into our airspace, and transitioning to new Next Generation Air Transportation System technologies.