I’ve often criticized airlines large and small over their flight crew hiring practices and, especially, the boom-and-bust nature of their characteristic binges when times are good and furloughs when they aren’t. We’re still mired in one of those cycles, thanks to the Covid-19 pandemic, when no one was traveling and thousands of pilots were either laid off indefinitely or chose to retire. Determined to do something even if it’s wrong, some have gone so far as to recommend relaxing training and experience standards to put more warm bodies in the cockpit.
Pilots are not the only aviation workers in short supply. Air traffic controllers also are in demand. The FAA in August announced it had met its target of hiring 1500 new controllers by the end of FY2023, and plans to hire another 1800 in FY2024. They’ll join another 1000 or so trainees already in the pipeline, which takes from six months to three years, depending on previous experience and their assigned ATC facility. According to the agency, the Covid-19 pandemic forced the FAA to close its academy for six months in 2020 and pause on-the-job training at facilities for almost two years.
