Staffing

The Workforce Plan Needs More Eyes, Too

Expediting a Solution to the Staffing Crisis Through Teamwork

ISSUE

In December of 2004 the FAA released the “Air Traffic Controller Workforce Plan for 2005-2014” to offset the projected wave of retirements.  The workforce plan called for 12,500 new hires over 10 years.  Yet a serious staffing crisis continues to loom over the air traffic control system—fewer controllers are watching more planes.  The retirement crisis is real and already here—the FAA is currently seeing the highest rates of retirement the system has seen in the last 24 years. There are 1,000 fewer controllers today than there were just two years ago. 

NATCA POSITION

The National Air Traffic Controllers Association believes the FAA must immediately report to Congress on the progress of their workforce plan to hire and train the next generation of air traffic controllers.  An updated Workforce Plan was due to Congress by December 2005, but the FAA claims, even though the plan is “nearing completion,” they will report the plan to Congress in December 2006 due to problems “completing necessary staff work.”  Addressing this issue simply by telling Congress “We have a plan” can not be tolerated.   Notwithstanding the principles and goals of the FAA’s workforce plan, the impact on the controller workforce is clear:  the plan is forcing more and more people to work more and more overtime.  The FAA must submit an honest, bottom-line assessment of hiring results for the first year of its workforce plan to Congress.  The agency must ensure facilities have adequate staffing based on their unique traffic demands.

BACKGROUND

In 2003, Congress enacted Vision 100 which required a plan from the FAA for adequate staffing of air traffic control positions be completed before December 2004.  The agency waited until the last possible minute, releasing the staffing report at the end of December 2004.  From October 2003 to September 2004, the FAA lost 500 controllers and only hired 13. Losing more controllers than are hired isn’t going to work. The agency says it plans on hiring 12,500 controllers, but that will take a decade, meaning that even in the best case scenario, the system will be left woefully understaffed for years to come. 

According to the FAA’s own figures 2,580 controllers are eligible to retire between 2005 and 2007. But the agency only hired 13 air traffic controllers in fiscal year 2004. There simply aren’t enough controllers to meet the traffic demand today, and even fewer in the pipeline to replace those leaving in the coming years. 

In the FAA’s December 2004 staffing plan, it claimed that it planned to hire 1,249 air traffic controllers in FY06. The agency also finally acknowledged for the first time that its prior policy of one hire for one retirement is not adequate because of the time needed to train a controller. But so far, the FAA’s actions fail to live up to its rhetoric. Its 2006 budget request provided for $24.9 million to hire 595 air traffic controllers and outlined plans to hire another 654 controllers using the old fashioned and inadequate “one for one” approach – far less than it had originally said, and far less than is needed to ensure the safety and integrity of the aviation system.

STAFFING HIGHLIGHTS OF THE FAA and ATO

• The staffing crisis by the numbers. Deserves repeating: From October 2003 to September 2004, the FAA lost 500 controllers and only hired 13. Losing more controllers than are hired isn't going to work. In FY 2005 the FAA saw another net loss of controllers but has yet to confirm the final numbers 
  
•  The FAA is artificially inflating staffing numbers. The FAA says it currently adequately staffed because it has inflated its staffing numbers by hiring supervisors instead of controllers. It is taking more people from controller jobs - meaning skilled professionals watching our skies - to fill numerous vacant supervisor positions, leaving fewer real controllers to work traffic. Many large en route centers have lost more than a half dozen veteran controllers to fill unnecessary supervisors' positions in 2004 alone. At Washington Center for example, 19 air traffic controllers were moved to the supervisory ranks. Nationwide, the FAA averages fewer than eight controllers for every first line supervisor [O1] - and that doesn't even consider the high numbers of second level and third level managers (all paid at higher rates than the controllers they supervise). 
  
• The FAA knew this was coming. The staffing crisis didn't creep up on the agency - it has been aware of it for years because of the simple fact that nearly 9,000 of the FAA's 14,500 controllers were hired in 1982 and 1983. Their retirement age is already here - the FAA is already seeing the highest rates of retirement that it has seen in the last 24 years. While NATCA was working to encourage the FAA to hire and train new controllers the agency took years to produce its staffing report which it finally released in December 2004. The report - and action - should have come years earlier.  

Main Menu
Issues and Legislation