Summary

Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO supplemented information in two reports on the air traffic control work force, focusing on differences between survey responses from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Chicago Air Route Traffic Control Center and other survey responses.

GAO found that Chicago: (1) center controllers and supervisors were more concerned than those at other centers about the extent and quality of developmental controllers' skills and training; (2) center controllers and supervisors were less concerned about meeting controller needs in the future because Chicago had a high number of developmental controllers; (3) controllers expressed concerns over the number of full-performance controllers, the heavy work load, the lack of overtime, the quality of training, and morale, and viewed airlines as contributors to their difficulties; and (4) supervisors generally shared the controllers' concerns.