Air Traffic Control Workforce Plan
Interested in becoming an air traffic controller?
The FAA plans to hire 1,877 controllers this fiscal year and plans to hire another 1,914 in fiscal 2009. The FAA maintains a hiring pool comprised of thousands of applicants — former controllers, military civilians and veterans, graduates of Air Traffic Collegiate Training Initiative (AT-CTI) colleges and interested candidates from the public sector. Most of them apply with a basic foundation of the air traffic system and are eager to join the ranks of the nearly 15,000 professional controllers. The agency goes through a thorough screening and a recently improved pre-employment processing system to select the "cream of the crop" to be the nation's future FAA air traffic controller.
The FAA has brought on board about 4,000 new controllers since issuing the first controller workforce plan in 2004. By capitalizing on innovations in pre-employment processing, an increase in training capacity at the Air Traffic Controller Academy in Oklahoma City, and new simulation equipment at the academy and at some of the busiest air traffic facilities, bringing a controller on board and getting that recruit through the training process is now more efficient than ever. In fact, these key improvements to training methods and technologies lowered the time it takes to become a certified controller from an average of 3-5 years to an average of 2-3 years. Yet, the rigorous standards required to become a Certified Professional Controller remained unchanged.
