May 13, 2025
The United States aviation industry is in the worst air traffic controller shortage in almost 30 years
The United States aviation industry is in the middle of the worst air traffic controller shortage in almost 30 years. Incidents, including the January American Airlines flight that crashed mid-air in Washington, D.C., have become al too common.
The industry has come up with a plan, CNN reports, that involves targeting recent college grads.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has partnered with five schools on the Enhanced Air Traffic-Collegiate Training Initiative Program, targeting recent college graduates in an effort to fill vacancies in air traffic control towers.
The program is available at the University of North Dakota, the University of Oklahoma, the Vaughn College of Aeronautics and Technology in upstate New York, Florida’s Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, and Tulsa Community College in Oklahoma.
The program’s website labels it as a non-funded partnership between the FAA and selected colleges, offering two- and four-year non-engineering aviation degree programs. Students learn basic air traffic control and aviation administration skills with the goal of “providing qualified candidates for developmental air traffic control specialist positions.”
Graduates are eligible to bypass the first five weeks of the FAA Academy’s initial qualification training in Oklahoma City.
The downside is that participants enter a tumultuous industry that features dated and failing air traffic control technology. The Department of Transportation announced in mid-May that a new system will be in use by 2028.
The announcement comes as Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey has faced an increase in air traffic control issues. Some air traffic controllers thre have told travelers to avoid the airport if they can. On May 11, the FAA issued a 45-minute ground stop following an equipment outage. The incident occurred just 48 hours after controllers’ radar suffered a 90-second blackout on May 9.
Two Tulsa Community College students, Tiana Murphy and Rebecca Nobles, are set to graduate from the Enhanced Air Traffic-Collegiate Training Initiative Program on Monday, CNN reports.
“Academically, I was never a naturally strong student, but coming to (Tulsa Community College) and fully immersing myself in air traffic control has ignited a real passion in me,” Murphy told CNN.
Terry Daniel, the air traffic control program coordinator at Tulsa Community College, said graduates “go in and there’s an experienced controller that is plugged in next to them, and they will not be on their own for one year to 18 months.”
Issues like what occurred in Newark has Nobles excited. She said entering the workforce is giving her the encouragement “to get out there and help.”
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