America’s new air traffic control crisis: an instructor shortage

The shortage of air traffic controllers keeping watch over America’s skies prompted the Federal Aviation Administration to embark on a massive recruitment drive. Now, the FAA has another problem: There are not enough instructors to teach all those new recruits the ropes. Teachers at the FAA’s training academy in Oklahoma City, mostly retired former controllers in their 60s, are increasingly required to work from 7 a.m. to midnight, powering through with endless cups of coffee they pay for themselves. With a $60 housing allowance, many live in a down-market apartment complex located near an infamous strip club in a neighborhood where gunshots are not uncommon. [caption id="attachment_57291246" align="aligncenter" width="1920"] An air traffic control tower in Arlington, Va. (Courtesy/Stefani Reynolds/Bloomberg)[/caption] Although a new labor contract has boosted instructors’ pay and benefits somewhat — many work part time, earning about $46 an hour — their daily grind isn’t getting any easier as an influx of fresh recruits into the academy has put additional strain on teachers, according to shift schedules and emails obtained by Bloomberg News and interviews with eight current academy instructors who requested anonymity as they’re not authorized to speak to the media. July saw the highest number of academy students in the FAA’s history (550), and August and September could top that. Schedules obtained by Bloomberg News show a sharp rise in the number of double shifts required for instructors, most of whom are employed by the federal contractor Science Applications International Corp. (SAIC), not by the FAA. They teach aviation basics, complex air-traffic scenarios and other courses during the recruits’ two months of training. Double shifts On March 6, for example, just six of the 105 instructors who teach one facet of the academy curriculum and were on duty that day had a double shift. A preliminary schedule for Sept. 2, distributed in late August, showed forty-two instructors from the same group assigned to doubles. (That figure could change slightly as schedules get finalized.) While some instructors request double shifts in order to make as much money as possible in a short period of time, others refuse. “Due to the surge in hiring for the last 4-5 months of FY25, we will be averaging significantly higher student requirements,” Richard Klumpp, a program management senior director at SAIC, said in a July 30 email viewed by Bloomberg News. “We have way more work than we have instructor availability in September thru mid-December.” In the email, Klumpp also expressed his “concern” in having enough instructors “to help reduce the doubles load on the team.” That load results in some instructors “walking around like zombies,” according to one instructor. A spokesperson for SAIC declined to comment. Choosing to teach Some of the instructors who spoke to Bloomberg News said they decline to work double shifts out of concern for their physical and mental health. (At least one teacher at the academy is well into his 80s.) Many of them said they don’t need the extra money, as they earned six-figure salaries before reaching the mandatory retirement age of 56 for air traffic controllers and are financially secure. They teach because they enjoy the job and the camaraderie among instructors, or simply to ward off boredom. “Most of the people who work choose to, it’s not because they have to,” said Andrew Hudson, a financial adviser who works almost exclusively with air traffic controllers. “These people just don’t want to sit around all day.” Hiring, training new instructors The FAA was short about 3,900 certified air traffic controllers at the close of its 2024 fiscal year in October, and has said it anticipates it will hire about 2,000 controllers this fiscal year after speeding up the hiring process and boosting salaries for trainees. It expects to hire at least 8,900 controllers through 2028, but admitted in a recent workforce report that “the number of instructors at the FAA Academy creates a practical limit” on the number of trainees that can move through the system. U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy has said he wants to plug the gaps in instructors amid the surge of trainees by using teaching assistants and other “expert educators” who aren’t former controllers. Those other instructors will begin work in a few months after getting hired and trained. The FAA has research showing they can perform the job just as well as former air traffic controllers, but declined to share it. Several longtime instructors, though, said those substitutes can’t provide the know-how that only comes from years of experience as a controller. Academy classes include basic tabletop exercises with model planes along with more technical instruction on the FAA’s air-traffic tracking and management system, known as ERAM. The FAA is also reviewing the academy curriculum, and could make changes that would reduce the number of instructors required for some courses. Wages Some instructors have recently quit, others are considering doing so, and replenishing the ranks isn’t easy as there’s often little incentive for retired controllers to commute back and forth every few months from, say, Florida or New York to Oklahoma City. Although instructors say they enjoy teaching the next generation of controllers, persuading former colleagues to ditch their grandkids and golf courses to join them can be a significant recruitment challenge. The previous collective bargaining agreement between SAIC and the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM), the union that represents 317 academy instructors, provided a $60 daily reimbursement for those who didn’t live in Oklahoma City. But that amount only went so far, leading many instructors to rent an apartment in Walnut Gardens, about a 30-minute drive to the FAA Academy. Living conditions The furnishings at Walnut Gardens — dubbed “The Nut” by instructors — haven’t changed much since the Reagan administration, instructors who have lived there say, and it’s around the corner from the Red Dog Saloon, known for years as Oklahoma City’s rowdiest strip club. One instructor refused to let his wife stay there when she visited him, choosing an Airbnb instead. Finding cozier digs often means instructors have to pay out of pocket to cover their living expenses, a sticking point that keeps some retirees from becoming instructors. The new labor agreement raises the daily reimbursement to $90 in January and provides 3% wage increases annually over the three-year contract, which works out to an additional $1.40 or so per hour from the $46.73 per hour many instructors earn now. (Those who teach basic courses make less.) The IAM called it a “major step forward” but said “we still have some work to do to help us recruit and retain instructors while improving quality of life for a workforce that has carried a heavy load to meet the mission.” Long hours Instructors who work double shifts often don’t get to sleep until 1 a.m., then might need to get back up around 5 a.m. to get to the academy during rush hour for a morning class, or another double shift. Many admitted that it’s impossible to give students their all by the end of the two eight-hour shifts. Some take catnaps in their cars during the one-hour break between shifts. And coffee in the break room isn’t free — instructors chip in their pocket change to refill the pot. “The thing nobody knows about us is we’re all voluntary — we do not have to be here,” one instructor said. “I can quit today and I’m done.” Register here for Cargo Facts ’ upcoming free webinar, “Air cargo route networks: Strategies for improved results and greater efficiencies,” on Tuesday, Sept. 16, at 11 a.m. ET. Cargo Facts Symposium, the quintessential event for stakeholders and key leaders in the global freighter and air cargo industries, will take place Oct. 22-24 at the Grand Hyatt in Nashville . Learn more and register today to take advantage of the early-bird rate before Sept. 5.

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