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N A T I O N A L A I R T R A F F I C C O N T R O L L E R S A S S O C I A T I O N | W W W . N AT C A . O R G N i W To d a y 21 21 21 21 MEETINGS N A T I O N A L A I R T R A F F I C C O N T R O L L E R S A S S O C I A T I O N | W W W . N AT C A . O R G N i W To d a y 21 21 21 21 ISSUES Full Background Issue Issue Air traffic controller staffing and training have been concerns for many years. Despite some recent progress, they remain challenges. The FAA continues to remain near a 30-year low in the number of Certified Professional Controllers (CPCs). Controller staffing levels have fallen 9% since 2012 and 4% of the CPC workforce is eligible to retire. Funding disruptions for the FAA have made this problem worse. The 35-day government shutdown that began in 2019 and sequestration- mandated funding cuts in 2013 forced the FAA to suspend hiring and shutter its training academy for significant periods of time. Moreover, during the COVID-19 pandemic, training was suspended at the academy, and when it restarted, enrollment was reduced by 50% to maintain health and safety protocols. If the FAA were to experience further decreases in CPC staffing levels, the agency would be hard-pressed to maintain capacity, let alone modernize the system and expand it for new users. The Department of Transportation (DOT) Office of Inspector General (OIG) issued a report in June 2023 (AV2023035) that concluded: "FAA continues to face staffing challenges and lacks a plan to address them, which in turn poses a risk to the continuity of air traffic operations." DOT OIG Report at 6. Moreover, in November 2023, the FAA's NAS Safety Review Team (SRT) concluded that under the most recent CWP submitted to Congress: "when retirements and other attrition is accounted for, the hiring plan produces a negligible improvement over today's understaffed levels, resulting in a net increase of fewer than 200 air traffic controllers by 2032." Message NATCA continues to be focused on improving the system-wide controller staffing shortage and long- standing controller training challenges. A properly- staffed controller workforce is necessary in order to safely and efficiently meet all of its operational, statutory, and contractual requirements, while also having the personnel resources to research, develop, deploy, and then train the existing workforce on new processes, technology, and modernization initiatives. Without a sustainable hiring, training, and staffing model like the one outlined in the FAA Reauthorization Act of 2024, which passed both chambers with overwhelming bipartisan support, the FAA will have a difficult time maintaining the current capacity of the system, let alone modernize or expand it for new users. Prior to 2024, NATCA, the FAA, and Congress were already taking steps in the right direction toward resolving these issues. For instance, in 2016, Congress passed a law that improved the FAA's hiring process by streamlining the hiring of controllers who have prior experience, as well as veterans and Collegiate Training Initiative (CTI) program students. In 2018, NATCA worked with Congress to reinstate the FAA's Retired Military Controller (RMC) program, as well as provide the FAA authority to post local commuting area vacancy announcements for certain critically understaffed facilities in New York. In 2019, Congress passed the ATC Hiring Reform Act of 2019, which made technical changes to the hiring process to make it less bureaucratic and more accountable. Last year, Congress made significant progress when it passed the FAA Reauthorization Act of 2024, which was a critical advancement in addressing controller staffing shortages and training challenges. That law included many first-time provisions including directing the FAA to conduct maximum hiring for controllers for the duration of the bill, implementing expansion of the capacity of the FAA's Training Academy in Oklahoma City, deploying tower simulator systems (TSS) at all FAA towers to enhance and expedite training time (by approximately 25%). After reaching its hiring targets for air traffic controller trainees three consecutive years, including increased targets of 1,500 and 1,800 respectively the past two fiscal years (FY), the FAA is starting to make some progress. After a decade of steady losses, in FY 2023, the FAA added 15 additional Certified Professional Controllers and 15 additional trainees. In FY 2024, the FAA added 140 CPCs and 189 trainees after accounting for attrition. Maximum hiring for the full duration of the 2024 Reauthorization Act will greatly assist the FAA achieve a staffing level required to meet all of its needs. The law also requires the FAA to implement the Collaborative Resources Workgroup's (CRWG) more accurate operational staffing targets on an interim basis, until the Transportation Research Board

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