The agency says it trimmed its controller-employment target after adopting a new staffing model.
The Federal Aviation Administration is under pressure from an air traffic controllers’ union after the agency last week revealed having trimmed its controller staffing target by some 2,000 positions, a change the agency calls a “more-accurate assessment”.
Released on 15 May, the FAA’s latest Air Traffic Controller Workforce Plan set its controller-employment target at 12,563 positions, citing a new “controller staffing model” for the shift.
The agency’s same report from last year put the target at 14,633 controllers – roughly 2,000 more. The workforce now stands at some 11,000 controllers, meaning the FAA remains some 2,500 short of its newly revised goal.
The FAA tweaked the figure based on a 2025 report from the National Academy of the Sciences’ Transportation Research Board, to “reflect a more-accurate assessment of the time controllers are available for operational duties after accounting for training, leave and other non-operational requirements”, the FAA says.
“Deploying modern staffing models and scheduling tools will improve controller staffing efficiency and reduce the need for excessive overtime, which can lead to fatigue and burnout,” it adds.
The National Air Traffic Controllers Association is now pushing back. The group was “surprised” the FAA adopted a staffing plan “based on [a] flawed transportation review board study”, it said on 18 May.
“The findings in this report are based on a staffing model that has proven to be the root cause of the staffing crisis we now face,” the union adds.
The FAA does not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The agency’s adjustment comes as it works to remedy a longstanding controller shortage that has repeatedly contributed to airline operational upheavals. The FAA has meanwhile been promoting its efforts to ramp controller hiring, with plans to hire 2,200 controllers in fiscal year 2026, followed by 2,300 in FY2027 and 2,400 in FY2028.
The agency insists its latest hiring plan “will erase the longstanding staffing shortage, prepare for future demand and ensure the long-term safety and operational efficiency of that national airspace system”.
Separately, the FAA said on 18 May it will take over operations at two air traffic control (ATC) towers currently operated under contracts with private companies — part of a plan to better standardise training and improve the pipeline of incoming controllers.
The move responds to a 2024 law requiring the FAA to establish a pilot programme “to convert high-activity air traffic control towers” operated under the FAA’s “Contract Tower Program” into facilities staffed by FAA-employed controllers.
Bozeman Yellowstone International airport in Montana and Mesa Gate airport in Arizona will be the first two private towers to be brought under FAA control.
As of November 2024, private firms operated towers at 265 airports, according to the FAA.
In 2021, the US Department of Transportation’s Office of Inspector General reported that the FAA had not adequately ensured that contract towers had maintained required staffing levels, saying the agency had not documented an adequate process for doing so. It also found no evidence that the FAA had completed “any review of contractor performance”.
The FAA estimates it will complete the pilot programme in 29-44 months and then report findings from the project to Congress.
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