FAA short-staffed on air traffic controllers, technicians during peak travel season, union warns

The Federal Aviation Administration is facing staffing challenges during the peak travel season.

Dave Spero, president of the Professional Aviation Safety Specialists, which represents some FAA employees, said the agency is also short on technicians, which can result in longer equipment outages and more flight delays.

“Having fewer technicians than needed can result in inadequate shift coverage. This means we do not have the right person available to resolve a crisis when it occurs,” Spero told members of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee’s aviation subcommittee at a hearing Wednesday.

Spero said it can take a newly hired FAA technician years to fully complete their training.

The FAA is also dealing with a shortage of 3,000 air traffic controllers. Subcommittee Chairman Sam Graves (R-Mo.) said the FAA’s staffing issues are becoming more apparent with attrition outpacing hiring.

“You’re seeing great disparity with retirements in air traffic controllers and the hiring — meaning that they’re not keeping pace with the hiring pipeline with those that are retiring,” Graves said.

The Transportation Security Administration says a record 3 million people flew the Sunday after the Fourth of July, and that eight of the 10 busiest days for air travel took place after May 24.

“You look at the stresses today, you look at the industry today. In the future, this is just going to grow greater and greater,” Graves said.

Spero said the FAA analysis shows lower staffing of FAA technicians translates into more longer and more frequent maintenance issues.

A radar system problem in Chicago earlier this summer temporarily led to a ground stop of flights.

Spero said there was no technician on site with the skills needed fix the issue quickly, and that an off-duty technician had to be called in to fix the issue.

“Air traffic controllers were seeing multiple targets on their displays. The only solution at that particular point was to put a ground stop in place because they did not know where the aircraft were,” Spero said.  “That problem would have been resolved if they had the right number of people with the right amount of training. And that was a conscious decision made by the agency there in Chicago to say, we don’t need anyone on staff that has that training right now.”

Spero said the FAA is also using an “insufficient” staffing model for its aviation safety inspector workforce.

FAA Administrator Mike Whitaker recently told the Senate Commerce Committee that more inspectors are being sent to oversee Boeing and its suppliers, following the fatal crashes of two 737 MAX jets in 2018 and 2019 that killed more than 340 people.

Spero said PASS recognized the need for greater oversight of Boeing, but said this oversight work is spreading the rest of the FAA inspection workforce thin.

“We do not know where the agency is transferring these inspectors from and if the oversight of other manufacturers or airlines will be impacted,” Spero said. Simply moving inspectors from other manufacturing environments is not a solution.”

The FAA has been developing a technical operations staffing model for over a decade. Spero is urging the agency to focus on the retention of current employees and to provide them with opportunities for career growth.

“We lose people and we’re not able to replace them. And we don’t have that pipeline coming in. We’re not prepared to replace someone when they leave,” Spero said.

Ranking Member Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.) said the number of certified professional controllers has declined for more than a decade, and that most facilities across the country have a shortage of air traffic controllers.

The FAA, he added, is “slowly recovering” from a temporary suspension of training at its academy at the height of the pandemic.

“Historical staffing challenges facing air traffic organization technicians, such as increased workload without additional resources and training, exacerbate these ongoing workforce bottlenecks,” Cohen said.

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