U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean P. Duffy announced, February 27, a new plan to supercharge the hiring of air traffic controllers (ATC), aiming to attract ‘more of America’s best and brightest to the aviation safety community.’
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is opening its hiring window to become an ATC from Thursday, Feb. 27-March 17.
The department also said it’s making it easier and cheaper to apply and start training.
As part of the announcement, starting salaries during paid ATC academy training will see a 30% increase – $22.61 per hour.
Within three years of graduating the academy, the average certified professional controller earns over $160,000 per year.
Shortage of 2,000 controllers in SoCal and nationwide
The hiring surge is a response to the ongoing ATC shortage.
As of September 2023, U.S. air traffic control facilities were nearly 2,000 controllers short of the FAA’s staffing goal of 8,966.
One controller in Southern California wrote last year that they have been short staffed for too many years and it’s creating unsafe situations.
Despite these staffing challenges, California’s airports have seen a rise in passenger traffic. In December 2024, California’s top ten airports received 18,785,264 passengers, reflecting a 6% increase from 2023.
“This staffing shortage has been a known challenge for over a decade, and this administration is committed to solving it,” said Duffy.
Duffy says the new, faster hiring process is just the beginning of President Donald Trump’s plan to focus on safety and modernize the federal government.
The administration said it’s changing the current 8-step hiring process to 5 steps that will cut more than four months off the process.
In addition, the FAA said candidates that receive the highest score of “Well Qualified” on their Air Traffic Skills Assessment Test (ATSA) will be given priority for the academy.
Musk wants to replace Verizon with Starlink for air traffic control communication system
In a separate announcement, Starlink CEO and Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) advisor Elon Musk posted about the shortage of top notch air traffic controllers on X (formerly Twitter).
“If you have retired, but are open to returning to work, please consider doing so,” Musk posted.
The post comes amid a recent firing of nearly 400 FAA employees.
Duffy said ‘Zero air traffic controllers and critical safety personnel were let go.’
The impacted workers include personnel hired for FAA radar, landing and navigational aid maintenance, one air traffic controller told The Associated Press.
Musk also replied to an X user who posted about Starlink replacing his rival FAA contractor Verizon.
“To be clear here, the Verizon communication system to air traffic control is breaking down very rapidly. The FAA assessment is single digit months to catastrophic failure, putting air traveler safety at serious risk,” posted Musk on X.
Musk later corrected himself stating “Correction: the ancient system that is rapidly declining in capability was made L3Harris. The new system that is not yet operational is from Verizon.”
To be clear here, the Verizon communication system to air traffic control is breaking down very rapidly. The FAA assessment is single digit months to catastrophic failure, putting air traveler safety at serious risk.
The Starlink terminals are being sent at NO COST to the… https://t.co/B3XOFZerJB
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 27, 2025
Musk’s DOGE has eliminated thousands of federal jobs and canceled more than 1,000 contracts.
For more information about Air Traffic Controlling hiring visit https://www.faa.gov/atc-hiring
