Air traffic controllers are worried about safety, staffing and more

Driving the news: Axios spoke to six current and retired air traffic controllers and instructors, all of whom requested anonymity because they are not authorized to speak to the press.

• Controllers have so far been spared from President Trump's mass firings, though other FAA employees have gotten the ax, raising safety concerns.

What they're saying: "I have friends and family [asking], 'Should I get on an airplane?'" one retired controller tells Axios.

• "And I'm like, well, it's not there yet. But it seems to be trending that way."
• "I don't believe that if these people really cared about safety, that they would be doing the things that they're doing."

A currently working controller brought up their concerns over staffing shortages, a long-standing issue.

• "My biggest fear is an over-exhausted controller who has to work a combined position because of staffing misses something," they say, referring to one controller working multiple posts simultaneously at their location.
• That's common at some facilities during quieter periods, but it can divide controllers' attention.

Another controller believes it's still safe to fly "in general," thanks to those behind the radar screens.

• "It is safe not because of the FAA's policies. It is not safe because of who the president is or because of who the president was," the controller says.
• "It's safe because there's people that go in every single day and they work their ass off to make sure that it's safe."

The other side: "We continue to hire and onboard air traffic controllers and safety professionals, including mechanics and others who support them," the FAA said in a statement.

• "Air traffic controllers deal with and have to manage stress, day in and day out," Nick Daniels, president of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association, said during a March 4 House hearing. "Anything that adds to that, any uncertainty, is what brings an added risk that has to be evaluated into the system."
• NATCA declined to make Daniels available or otherwise comment for this story.

Their ideas: One controller proposed a second ATC school to complement an existing Oklahoma facility, but an instructor at that facility says low pay has led to a teacher shortage and smaller classes.

• Another says young new controllers are often thrown into high-paced, understaffed facilities — New York approach, for example — like "cannon fodder into the slaughter," leading to higher training times and failure rates.
• Yet another suggests hiring more controllers to train and work at understaffed facilities near home, rather than being assigned elsewhere in the country after initial training, as often happens.

Follow the money: Higher pay and better scheduling are pretty much universal wants.

• Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy recently claimed that controllers make $160,000 on average three years out of the academy.
• But several controllers told Axios that's a rosy view, with some making far less — sometimes while stationed in high-cost areas — and without clear growth opportunities.

• Controllers made a median of $137,400 in 2023, per Labor Department data.

Friction point: Air traffic controllers can't legally strike, limiting their bargaining power.

• And when controllers struck in 1981, President Reagan fired thousands — a memory that runs deep in controllers' collective psyche.

The latest: Duffy has floated raising the mandatory ATC retirement age from 56, while Elon Musk called for retired controllers to return to work.

• The FAA also recently increased pay for initial trainees from about $18/hour to about $23/hour and opened a new ATC hiring window.

Reality check: Retirees would still need to be retrained before plugging in and working traffic, controllers tell Axios.

• And some controllers become eligible for retirement before 56, leaving for other jobs or pursuits while collecting their pensions.
• "If your base salary is 130K and your pension is 60K, now you're working for 70K a year," one controller says. "Is it worth it for 70K a year? Could you find something else? So guys are walking away, and they're not making it to 56."

The intrigue: Duffy recently blocked efforts by Musk's DOGE to fire controllers, per New York Times coverage of a meeting of Trump's Cabinet earlier this month.

• Musk reportedly denied that DOGE made any such attempt.
• Also during that meeting, Trump reportedly told Duffy to hire "geniuses" from MIT to be controllers.
• When asked about that comment, one controller replied: "I seriously doubt people with degrees from MIT want six-day workweeks on our rotating schedules for our salaries."

What's next: If the government shuts down Friday, controllers will still be made to work, but with suspended pay — no doubt further eroding morale.

• Yet controller sickouts played an under-appreciated role in ending the last major government shutdown, and it doesn't take many absences for delays and cancellations to start mounting.