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

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Edited By: Steve Spears

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

Key Takeaways:

A recent report reveals a critical 15-year decline in U.S. air traffic controller (ATC) staffing, leading to a third of facilities being significantly understaffed by fiscal year 2024 due to the FAA consistently hiring below necessary levels.
Contributing factors to the shortage include insufficient hiring during federal shutdowns and the pandemic, increasing dropout rates in ATC training, and the FAA's failure to effectively distribute controllers to sites where they are most needed.
Potential solutions include increased Congressional funding to boost the talent pipeline, better data collection on controller fatigue, and crucial improvements to staffing allocation to ensure controllers are directed to understaffed facilities.

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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.