Report Shows Continuing Lag in ATC Hiring

A recent study identified multiple factors behind the lack of FAA air traffic controllers.

Zach Vasile

Thursday, June 19, 2025 at 07:00 AM ET

Verified

Edited By: Steve Spears

An air traffic control tower in San Francisco [Credit: Shutterstock]

Key Takeaways:

A National Academies report reveals a 15-year decline in air traffic controller (ATC) staffing, with nearly a third of facilities now significantly understaffed due to the FAA consistently hiring fewer controllers than needed.
Key factors contributing to the shortage include reduced hiring during crises, a sharp increase in training dropout rates (from 93% academy graduation to 75% and 81% certification to 61%), and the FAA's failure to effectively distribute controllers to where they are most needed.
Potential solutions involve increased Congressional funding to boost the controller pipeline, improved data gathering on facility-specific needs and controller fatigue, and crucially, a mechanism to ensure new and existing controllers are deployed to understaffed locations.

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A report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine released on Wednesday may offer the most comprehensive view yet of the nation’s air traffic controller shortage and the potential paths to resolve it.

The National Academies, which performs research for the federal government, found that ATC staffing levels have been declining for 15 years. In 2010, the number of understaffed ATC facilities was relatively small, and some were even overstaffed, but in the following years the FAA hired only two-thirds of the controllers called for by its staffing models. By fiscal year 2024, nearly a third of ATC facilities had fallen 10% below adequate staffing levels and about 22% had fallen 15% below.