CHARLOTTE, N.C. (QUEEN CITY NEWS) — There’s a significant shortage of air traffic controllers nationwide. It’s something the National Air Traffic Controller Association, a labor union aviation safety organization, has raised concerns about for decades.
“We’ve always been short in ATC,” retired air traffic controller George Cline said.
He says the news of an air traffic controller shortage isn’t new to him. He’s been in the industry for more than 50 years and worked as a supervisor at the Piedmont Triad Airport tower during a major strike in 1981.
“I’ve been back like a week and a half and the strike came, and we lost 11,400 controllers,” Cline said. “We still operated on a daily basis because we had a lot of controllers left. And we had a glutton of controllers. You don’t have that anymore.”
Federal Aviation Administration officials announced last September they had 14,000 air traffic controllers. The agency exceeded its 2024 hiring goal — adding 1,811 — the largest number in nearly a decade.
But regulators are still looking to fill more than 3,000 vacant positions.
“You can’t be (under) 31 and you can’t be over 56. 25 years is all they want to do. And then they make you retire,” Cline said.
Applicants undergo rigorous, monthslong training. They must have two to four years of experience before full certification. Once in the job, the hours are long, and the pay is low until they gain experience.
Cline says officials should reconsider the age limit and hire retired military controllers.
“They need to get away with the 56 thing,” he suggested. “They need to make it like pilots, make it 65. You let the controller retire when he wants to retire, not when he has to retire.”
FAA officials say retirement at 56 is due to the stress of the job. But Cline believes experience could keep incidents down.
“The experience and the old guys that everybody used to make fun of, “oh, they’re old. You know, they’re set in their ways.” Guess what we are set in our ways, and why are we set in our ways? Because we know it works. It’s all about safety,” Cline said.
About 91% percent of air traffic control facilities are understaffed. Industry experts say current plans will add fewer than 200 new controllers by 2032.
