FAA slashes hiring target, saying it can keep the skies safe with fewer air traffic controllers than it thought

The FAA Air Traffic Control tower at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport. (Credit: Eric Lee/Bloomberg/Getty Images via CNN Newsource)

The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) needs fewer air traffic controllers than earlier estimates to be fully staffed, the agency announced Friday.

Under the 2026 - 2028 Workforce Plan, 12,563 Certified Professional Controllers will be required, down from the 14,633 the agency forecast it needed for those years in 2024.

“Modern staffing models and scheduling tools” will allow the 2,000 fewer controllers to keep the skies safe, the agency said in a news release.

“We can’t continue to operate the same way and expect better results,” FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford said in the statement. “We’re changing how we hire, train and schedule our controller workforce – and providing them with the state-of-the-art tools they need to succeed,”

The new total is still well above the approximately 11,000 certified controllers employed right now across the county.

There are 4,000 trainees in the pipeline, though it can take up to two years to fully certify a newly hired controller. The numbers could still be challenging for the agency as not everyone completes training and controllers must retire when they reach the age of 56.

A shortage of controllers has plagued the FAA for years, leading to mandatory overtime for controllers and air travel delays as flights are slowed so the reduced staff working can handle them.

The FAA Workforce Plan published in 2024 noted the agency was about 4,000 controllers short of being fully staffed. That year 2.2 million hours of overtime cost taxpayers US$200 million, according to a National Academies of Sciences report.

To manage flights with less staffing than previously forecast, the FAA will use “modern, automated scheduling tools” to reduce overtime, as well as “a data-driven controller-staffing model” to assess when controllers are available for operational duties, the plan says. The hours of operation of some facilities will also be reviewed “to ensure controller deployment better matches periods of high traffic demand.”

In September, the U.S. Department of Transportation said it had met its hiring goals for the year, but after the government shutdown last fall resulted in controllers not getting paid for weeks, some quit to find more stable jobs.

U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy vowed to “supercharge” air traffic controller hiring earlier this year, announcing pay increases and a streamlined hiring process for controllers. He has also promised to build a “brand new air traffic control system” which will increase operational efficiency, redundancy and attract new controllers.

The FAA’s plan says it will need to recruit 2,200 “high-quality candidates” in 2026, and 2,300 in 2027 and 2,400 in 2028 to stay on track.