FAA unveils major workforce plan to address air traffic controller shortage

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) on Friday unveiled an aggressive new workforce reform aimed at combating chronic staffing shortages, excessive overtime and aging technology throughout the nation’s air traffic control system.

The new air traffic controller workforce plan for 2026-2028 calls for hiring thousands of new controllers, modernizing scheduling systems and replacing aging infrastructure across the national airspace system.

The plan comes months after FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford warned lawmakers that air traffic control towers would “never” reach full staffing if the agency continued operating under its current structure.

“We will never catch up,” Bedford said at a congressional hearing in December. “The system is designed to be chronically understaffed.”

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A Delta Air Lines plane takes off with the air traffic control tower visible at Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Airport, November 7, 2025. (Tim Evans/Reuters)

The overhaul also comes amid increased scrutiny of air safety following a series of airport disruptions, delays and close-quarters incidents that have raised new questions about whether the country’s air traffic control infrastructure is keeping pace with growing travel demand.

“This forward-thinking plan delivers on President Donald J. Trump’s promise to provide the American flying public with a world-class air traffic control system, and it starts with professional, highly trained air traffic controllers,” Bedford said in a statement.

“We cannot continue to operate in the same way and expect better results,” he added. “We’re changing the way we recruit, train and schedule our controllers — and provide them with the cutting-edge tools they need to succeed. »

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Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy speaks during a press briefing on flight safety at the U.S. Department of Transportation in Washington on April 21, 2026. (Tom Brenner/AP)

The FAA said the plan identifies a full staffing goal of 12,563 certified professional controllers, based on anticipated demand. As of April 2026, the agency said approximately 11,000 certified professional controllers were deployed to more than 300 air traffic facilities.

The agency also has 4,000 additional screeners being trained, including about 1,000 who were previously fully certified but are now being trained at new facilities, according to the plan.

Rebuilding the workforce will take time. The FAA has said that fully certifying a newly hired controller can take more than two years, depending on the complexity of the installation to which they are assigned.

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A traveler walks near an air traffic control tower at Philadelphia International Airport, in Philadelphia, March 27, 2026. (PA)

The agency plans to hire 2,200 new air traffic controllers in fiscal 2026, 2,300 in fiscal 2027 and 2,400 in fiscal 2028, while expanding partnerships with colleges, universities and technical schools.

The workforce plan also recognizes the pressure that excessive overtime has placed on controllers.

“Using a limited number of overtime hours is a reasonable way to accommodate unexpected variations in work demands,” the plan states. “However, the levels achieved during FY 2023 through FY 2025 far exceed any reasonable reliance on mandatory overtime.”

“Chronic use of overtime leads to fatigue, controller burnout, and ultimately loss of retention,” the report states.

The plan also notes that staff scheduling and controller timekeeping are still handled manually by local facility managers.

“It is difficult to understand why no automation tools have been deployed to plan our workforce or track time, attendance and functional work completed,” the report said.

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Travelers pass through Terminal 1 at San Francisco International Airport in San Francisco, California, November 7, 2025. The FAA is reducing flights by 10 percent at 40 major airports nationwide, including SFO, due to understaffing for air traffic control due to the federal government shutdown. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

The FAA said improving average on-station check time from about four hours to more than five hours per eight-hour shift could increase effective workforce availability enough to meet current staffing goals.

The workforce plan also calls for replacing decades-old infrastructure with a fully digital system, expanding simulator training and using artificial intelligence and machine learning tools to better manage air traffic demand.

Lawmakers also raised concerns during Bedford’s December testimony about the age of some FAA systems, including reports that some facilities still rely on floppy disks.

“When you’re still using floppy disks, it makes everyone less safe, it makes the agency less efficient,” Rep. Brad Knott, R-N.C., said at the hearing.

Rep. Laura Gillen, D-N.Y., also said she saw floppy disks still in use during a visit to the FAA’s Terminal Radar Approach Control Center on Long Island, which manages traffic at major airports in the New York area.

Bedford told lawmakers that the FAA has committed more than $6 billion of the $12.5 billion received under the Trump-backed legislation, including investments in telecommunications infrastructure and new radar surveillance systems.

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The new workforce plan says the FAA will replace “decades-old, unreliable analog infrastructure” with a “fully digital network system,” arguing that modern tools will improve reliability, reduce outages and provide controllers with a more stable working environment.

The FAA said the plan builds on the surge in hiring from fiscal 2025, when the agency hired 2,028 air traffic controller trainees, its highest total since 2008.

The agency also increased starting salaries for academy students by nearly 30 percent and implemented financial incentives for college completion.

Still, the FAA said total workforce losses in fiscal year 2025 — including retirements, resignations, promotions, layoffs, training failures and academy attrition — stood at 1,460.

Nearly 400 controllers eligible for retirement were retained through a new bonus structure, according to the agency.

The Transportation Research Board of the National Academies previously found that approximately 30 percent of FAA installations were staffed more than 10 percent below staffing targets, while an additional 30 percent were staffed 10 percent or more above targets.

The FAA said previous hiring disruptions, including sequestration, government shutdowns and the COVID-19 pandemic, have had long-term effects on staffing levels, particularly at major facilities serving some of the nation’s largest airports.

Even with thousands of hires planned, FAA officials acknowledged the air traffic controller shortage won’t be resolved quickly.

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Between years of training, retirements, staffing imbalances and modernization challenges, the agency’s own projections make it clear that pressure on the U.S. air traffic control system is expected to continue even as demand for air travel continues to rise.

Ashley Carnahan of Fox News Digital contributed to this report.