The plan is to hire in such numbers in 2024, bringing the total for the next two years to 3,300. “I applaud them for actually hiring,” Rinaldi says, though he points out that the number falls short of the FAA’s annual limit of 1,800 new hires. The agency’s target is to hire 1,500 new controllers by the end of the year. This does have a negative impact on the volume of traffic.” “We stopped training during Covid, and a lot of people retired. “Chronically low staffing has been a problem for a while,” says Paul Rinaldi, a former air traffic controller and vice president of the Global Air Traffic Controller Alliance. As a result, the FAA asked airlines to reduce summer flights in the New York metropolitan area, where a key radar facility is only 54% staffed. One of the most pressing issues is a shortage of air traffic controllers – who handle the crucial task of guiding aircraft between and around airports – with a shortfall of about 3,000, according to Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg. While the recent surge in air traffic for Memorial Day was handled smoothly, the next big challenge will be the days around the June 19 Juneteenth holiday.
“They know that the investment in air traffic control, technology and individuals has been below the level it needs to be – and now we’re paying the price for that.” “The FAA has acknowledged that it can’t handle this level of demand - that’s why they’ve asked the airlines to reduce capacity in some areas,” says Freeman. There are also mounting requests to more aggressively and comprehensively address the system’s bottlenecks, including obsolete technology and staffing issues. President Biden announced in early May that he is pushing to bolster passenger protection and compensation for delays or cancellations, after the Department of Transportation saw airline passenger complaints rise 55% in 2022. This type of demand will be an incredible stress test for it.” “That’s great for the travel industry, but there’s no doubt that – as a country – we have underinvested in the aviation system for far too long. “We expect the summer travel season to be off the charts when it comes to demand,” says Geoff Freeman, president of the US Travel Association.
That holiday weekend was uneventful, but experts are concerned that things might not go smoothly all summer for a system that has seen many meltdowns in the past year and appears to be prone to more. The US aviation system is set for a record-breaking summer, with the Transportation Security Administration already reporting passenger volumes greater than pre-pandemic levels during the Memorial Day weekend.
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