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Why The U.S. Air Traffic Control System Needs A Massive Overhaul
Discover the urgent need for a massive overhaul of the U.S. Air Traffic Control system. Explore how current staffing shortages and the rising demand for air traffic controllers are endangering the safety and efficiency of the aviation industry. Learn about innovative programs aimed at fast-tracking students into this vital career.
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Video Transcript
Endeavor 5185 Air Center.
These students are studying air traffic control.
A controller needs to memorize every point on that map
and every point on this radar display.
It's a lot of information, and at first when you try and do it,
it's really, really daunting.
It's part of a new program from the Federal Aviation
Administration to fast track students into a job
in air traffic control.
And so any graduate of that program,
instead of going to the academy, they can be hired into the agency.
Air traffic controller is at an all-time low in staffing.
Now it's hit to a critical point where this can't be sustained.
We currently have 10,800
certified professional controllers, where we need 14,633.
That's roughly a deficit of 26%.
The shortage is not new and has been around similar levels
for the last decade.
But recent events, despite not necessarily errors
of air traffic control, are calling more attention
to the importance of filling these jobs.
The investigation continues into that deadly collision
between an American Airlines jet
and a Black Hawk helicopter near Reagan National Airport.
Air traffic control tower staffing deemed not normal,
but it's not deemed unsafe under FAA guidelines.
The NTSB said there was one person handling helicopter
and airline traffic,
when typically there would be one for each.
The Federal Aviation Administration
has limited flights in congested areas like New York
because the number of controllers are insufficient.
On blue sky days last year,
so days with no weather in the system,
we 68% of our delays
were because of air traffic control restrictions.
We have a delay in New York every single day, no matter what the weather is, because they're simply understaffed.
Another concern is the aging systems used by the FAA.
We have computers, and I kid you not, today in 2025, they're based on Windows 95 and floppy disks.
After an outage in 2023 that grounded thousands of flights, the FAA determined that 51 of its 138 systems that provide things like communications are unsustainable and need to be modernized.
CNBC explores how the FAA got so behind on hiring air traffic controllers
and technology and what it's doing to fix it.
The air traffic control shortage has been a concern for decades.
We know that the Federal Aviation Administration is facing a shortage
of experienced air traffic controllers and we cannot afford
to ignore the safety needs of the aviation system.
It's been a long-stemming problem.
It's not just one thing, it's been multiple things over a decade.
We've been having staffing numbers reported incorrectly.
There haven't been hiring goals that have been met.
