FAA cuts target for air traffic control staffing

A JetBlue aircraft lands under the DC skyline featuring the U.S. Capitol building, near United Airlines, American Airlines and Delta Airlines aircraft on the tarmac at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport in Arlington, Virginia, U.S. January 25, 2025. Jim Urquhart | Reuters The Federal Aviation Administration said Friday it was sharply reducing its target for air traffic control staffing as it vowed to modernize scheduling and increase the time employees spend managing traffic. The FAA said its new target is 12,563 certified controllers, down from 14,633. A National Academies of Sciences report last year said overtime costs for air traffic controllers, have jumped by more than 300% since 2013 to over $200 million, citing a misallocated workforce and inefficient scheduling. The report said the time controllers spend on position managing air traffic has declined despite a 4% increase in traffic. It added it could increase time on position from around four hours per shift to more than five hours. The FAA said "deploying modern staffing models and scheduling tools will improve controller staffing efficiency and reduce the need for excessive overtime." The FAA said as of April, approximately 11,000 certified controllers are deployed across more than 300 FAA air traffic facilities, with an additional 4,000 controllers in the training pipeline, including 1,000 who were previously a fully certified controller but are now training at new air traffic control facilities. …