FAA Will Hire 12,500 Controllers To Replace Retirees

WASHINGTON – The Federal Aviation Administration announced a plan yesterday to hire 12,500 new air traffic controllers and let some existing workers stay on the job longer than their mandatory retirement age to offset a tidal wave of looming retirements.The plan outlined by FAA Administrator Marion Blakey also calls for speeding up training to get controllers on the job faster and reducing the workforce at airports with less air traffic.The genesis for the moves can be traced to 1981, when President Reagan fired more than 10,000 controllers and hired replacements. Nearly three-quarters of those workers will be eligible for retirement in the next 10 years.“This is potentially an urgent problem and a safety issue, not having enough qualified controllers in three to five years,” said Rep. Peter DeFazio, a Democrat of Oregon and ranking Democrat on the House aviation subcommittee.The plan includes 435 new controllers next year for whom Congress has already budgeted. In 2006, 1,249 more will be added, and varying amounts will be hired in subsequent years through 2014. When hiring is completed, the FAA will have about 16,200 controllers, about 1,500 more than now, to accommodate an expected increase in air traffic.Rep. John Mica, a Republican of Florida and chairman of the House aviation subcommittee, applauded the plan but said the FAA should have tried to solve the problem sooner.“It needs to be implemented as soon as possible because the workforce continues to age,” Mr. Mica said.Controllers’ salaries and benefits account for a third of the $6.2 billion air traffic control budget, according to FAA’s chief operating officer, Russell Chew.How the FAA will pay for the new wave of controllers that it has to train while others are still on the job is unclear. Ms. Blakey said she could not estimate the price tag for the new controllers, partly because the existing contract expires next year and the cost of a new agreement won’t be known until it’s negotiated.With more people than ever traveling by air, airlines support adding controllers to ensure the planes running on schedule. Delays are very costly for the airlines. But there also is concern that if the FAA can’t get Congress to approve the money needed for the new controllers, it will seek to raise taxes on the airlines.Much of the FAA’s revenue comes from a passenger ticket tax pegged at 7.5% of fares. Cheaper tickets offered by discount airlines have caused the FAA’s dedicated revenues to fall 8% in the last four years.During the current fiscal year, the FAA had to take $470 million from a fund to replace aging equipment and use it to pay for air traffic control. Still, Ms. Blakey is confident the money needed for the controllers “will be there from Congress.”The president of the air traffic controllers union, John Carr, was skeptical lawmakers will approve the funding. He predicted the FAA will be forced to put off equipment upgrades and airport expansion and reduce the number of hours that some smaller airports operate.“We need to tell the flying public to bring a good book to the airport, because they’re going to be there for a while,” Mr. Carr said.The FAA acknowledged that possibility.

FAA Will Hire 12,500 Controllers To Replace Retirees

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