OKLAHOMA CITY—U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said the federal government would take steps to hire more air-traffic controllers and spend billions of dollars to upgrade the nation’s aviation system.
As part of plans to increase staffing, Duffy said the Federal Aviation Administration would boost pay for students at its air-traffic control academy in Oklahoma City by 30% to $22.84 an hour in the coming days.
Duffy said Thursday the FAA would streamline hiring and shave more than four months from the process of training new air-traffic controllers.
“We have to pay young people more to stay in the academy,” Duffy said, after touring the FAA’s academy and meeting with students and staff. “If we have the best and brightest and we pay people more, we’re going to address one of the problems we have, which is the washout rate.”
The secretary touted what graduates can earn: an average of $160,000. Pay varies by location, and the FAA said the figure didn’t include overtime.
The FAA has struggled with low staffing at its air-traffic facilities in recent years. The shortages have strained controllers, who often work long weeks, and at times have led to flight delays as the agency eases controllers’ workloads.
As of late 2023, the FAA had about 81% of the fully certified controllers it needed then, The Wall Street Journal has reported.
Airline executives and controller-union officials praised Duffy’s plan to boost hiring. “This is a critical initial step to making our aviation system even safer,” American Airlines Chief Executive Robert Isom said in a written statement.
The controller hiring push comes as the Trump administration has been cutting jobs across the federal government, including at the FAA. Controllers and aviation-safety inspectors have been exempt from the cuts. President Trump has separately criticized diversity, equity and inclusion programs after a Jan. 29 crash at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport that took 67 lives.
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