Flight delayed? Air traffic control woes go beyond what FAA bill would fix.

The 2.9 million airline passengers who take to the American skies every day are increasingly grumpy as they face delays, cancellations, and ever-higher fees for things that were once free. The reasons are complex, but when it comes to delays, a key issue is the growing strain on the air traffic control system responsible for preventing collisions among 45,000 daily flights.

Since President Ronald Reagan fired most of the controllers in the United States during a 1981 strike, understaffing has been a challenge. Today controllers are also handling a more complex airspace, including more drones and rocket launches. And they’re doing it without top technology. All but seven U.S. airports, for example, track flights with paper strips rather than with an electronic system – a system Canada has used for more than two decades.

A series of near misses last year – including a FedEx plane nearly landing on top of a Southwest plane taking off in Austin, Texas, after both were cleared by the same controller – has prompted a deeper look. A federal safety review team devoted more than a third of its November report to bolstering the strained air traffic control system. 

Officials insist that the skies are still safe overall. But maintaining safety can come at customers’ expense. For example, overburdened controllers may spread out planes further and extend the time between each landing on a given runway, resulting in delays.

The staffing and technology constraints are partly Congress’ fault. Missed budget deadlines and government shutdowns have made it tough for the Federal Aviation Administration to plan ahead. Now there’s a once-in-five-years opportunity to address air traffic control issues as Congress reviews FAA spending priorities for 2024-28. 

The House and Senate committees that oversee the agency both approved bipartisan FAA reauthorization bills that include measures to address the air traffic control shortages and technological hurdles. But neither fully addresses the chronic underfunding and its effects. After missing an Oct. 1, 2023, deadline, Congress must vote on both bills before the current temporary funding expires on May 10.

“Reauthorization is extremely important in providing a level of stability, so that’s a good thing,” says Michael Huerta, the former administrator of the FAA and chair of the safety review team behind last November’s report. “But more needs to be done, and we’re really encouraging the administration and the Congress to look more broadly at what the long-term needs of the agency are and how best to address them.” 

Struggle to recruit, retain controllers

When Jeffrey Thompson was 18 years old, an Air Force recruiter lent him a DVD of “Pushing Tin,” starring John Cusack as an air traffic controller, and convinced Mr. Thompson to be one himself. 

“ATC saved my life,” says Mr. Thompson. “It helped me create a life and destroy generational curses.”

After years with the military overseas, he was hired as an air traffic controller at Dallas Fort Worth International Airport just as all the controllers brought on after the Reagan-era purge were retiring. 

“People weren’t certifying in air traffic control fast enough,” he says, adding that the FAA fast-tracked people who weren’t necessarily ready. He also saw inexperienced controllers not getting critical mentoring.

Confronted by such understaffing and a “good old boy” culture that didn’t feel welcoming to him as a Black man, Mr. Thompson left to pursue a different career in 2018.

The November report called for a review of the culture and training atmosphere at the FAA Academy in Oklahoma to determine whether they were deterring candidates who could succeed.

The FAA also faces a class action lawsuit alleging that during the Obama administration it sidelined more than 2,000 qualified applicants, who had already passed an assessment test, in an overhaul of the hiring process designed to increase racial diversity among air traffic controllers.

This year the agency plans to hire 1,800 controllers – 300 more than last year – and is filling every seat at the academy. It began allowing qualified graduates from collegiate air traffic control programs to skip the academy and go straight to a facility. It is also accelerating hiring of military controllers, and using modernized simulators to train new hires more efficiently. 

But only about 70% of candidates pass the academy certification tests. And many people are leaving the field. According to the safety review report, the FAA hiring plan will yield a net increase of fewer than 200 controllers by 2032.

The Department of Transportation’s inspector general found last summer that 3 in 4 critical airports are understaffed. At the bottom of the list was a New York facility (N90) that is staffed at only 54% and has only eight operational supervisors out of the 30 authorized.

Three-quarters of all delays in the U.S. occur because of delays around New York City, a particularly complex and congested airspace, according to the FAA. In the summer of 2022, Reuters reported, more than 40,000 flights were delayed due at least in part to air traffic control understaffing. As a result of such understaffing, last year airlines reduced by 10% the number of flights they were offering into New York – a cut that is still in effect.

Fewer controllers means more flights each controller has to track when others are on the required breaks. It also means more overtime shifts. While the additional pay is attractive, it can lead to mistakes – and burnout. “They’re wearing the controllers out,” says a recently retired controller and local union representative. “When you keep running the system at a bare minimum, something’s going to break.” 

Overworking controllers can increase the stress of an already intensely stressful job. And the controllers are acutely aware of the high stakes. “You can’t make mistakes,” says the retired controller.

Serious runway incursions or near misses remain rare. In the past fiscal year, there were only 23 out of 54.4 million flights, and only about a fifth of those were due to controllers’ actions or inaction. However, that marked a 44% increase over the previous year.

Aging technology

One way to minimize safety issues is improved technology that alerts controllers and gives them more situational awareness. But there’s a long way to go.

The switch from paper flight-tracking strips to electronic ones at 49 U.S. airports is scheduled to take another five years. A hazard-alert system known as NOTAM (Notice to Airmen) failed last year, causing the first nationwide shutdown of U.S. airspace since 9/11. And most instrument landing systems, which guide airplanes on their final approach to the runway, are more than 25 years old. Air traffic control towers are 40 years old on average.

“It’s not functioning the way a major utility ought to function,” says Robert Poole, director of transportation policy at Reason Foundation, a libertarian think tank, noting that other countries are far ahead of the U.S.

The Senate’s new FAA reauthorization bill proposes $18 billion to upgrade NOTAM and expand technology aimed at preventing runway collisions from 43 airports to all large and midsize airports. Another improvement under way is transitioning from radar to GPS so that air traffic controllers have a more precise picture of a plane’s whereabouts.

“It’s like going from an impressionist painting to HDTV,” says Mr. Huerta, the former FAA head.

Such technological investments have been hampered partly by the expense of maintaining legacy systems, many of which are too old for manufacturer support and replacement parts. That’s partly because the five-year funding cycle limits long-term planning and investments. 

“There is quite a lot of pressure on the FAA to do its mission with years of not funding it the proper way,” says Patricia Gilbert, a veteran air traffic controller who was the executive vice president of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association from 2009 to 2021 and a co-author of the November 2023 safety review report. 

“And it’s not all Congress,” she adds, noting that administrations have limited needed investments at FAA in favor of other funding priorities.  

President Joe Biden’s 2025 proposed budget increases the FAA’s funding by 10% and includes $43 million for controller hiring and training. But first, Congress has to pass the 2024 FAA reauthorization – more than seven months late.