Latest news with #NickDaniels
Yahoo
23-05-2025
- Climate
- Yahoo
Experts predict record travel on Memorial Day weekend
NEW HAVEN, Conn. (WTNH) — It is the Friday before Memorial Day, and the holiday rush is already beginning. From the skies to the roads, experts predict record travel. Quite a few flights are leaving out of Tweed Friday morning to Florida, the Carolinas, Texas, all over. More than 3.5 million Americans are expected to fly, a 2% increase from last year. And more than 39 million will travel by car, about a million more than last year. Connecticut State Police stepping up patrols for Memorial Day weekend And for many, the weather is not cooperating. Heavy rain is expected Friday along the Interstate 95 corridor in the northeast, along with wind gusts up to 50 miles an hour and snow possible in northern New England. In New Haven, flights seem to be on time and operating smoothly… But flights at the Austin, Texas, airport were grounded yesterday because of more air traffic controller staffing issues. At busy Newark Airport, outside New York, the FAA is now extending limits on flights after multiple air traffic-control system outages, which were blamed on low staffing and outdated communications systems. Other recent outages were reported from Denver to Houston. The CEOs of 10 major airlines sent a letter to Congress Thursday, pushing for immediate action, saying that they need 'serious upgrades need to happen now.' 'Most Americans today walk around with more computing power in their pocket than air traffic controllers have at the ready,' Nick Daniels with the National Air Traffic Controllers Association said. Analysts say fewer people are traveling abroad this year, so get ready for bigger crowds if you're hitting tourist sites here at home this summer, like national parks. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
08-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
An air traffic controller at Newark is like ‘a 3D chess player who can juggle a chainsaw' with their eyes closed, ex-pilot says
A former United Airlines pilot said Newark air traffic controllers already had a tough enough job prior to the recent system outage. Some air traffic controllers involved in the Newark airport system chaos opted for a 45-day 'trauma leave" adding to an already vacant profession. Despite the system outage at Newark Liberty International Airport that has delayed flights into this week, air traffic controllers tasked with airport's logistics already have a ridiculously hard job, a former United Airlines pilot said. 'I equate a good, A-level, traffic controller that can handle a place like Newark, JFK, LAX, San Francisco, to a three dimensional chess player who can juggle a chainsaw, an axe, a sword, a razor blade with his eyes closed,' Aero Consulting Experts CEO and a former United pilot Ross Aimer told Fortune. Last week, air traffic controllers in the Philadelphia TRACON (PHL) tasked with oversight into the logistics of arrival and departure flights at the Newark Liberty International Airport 'temporarily lost radar and communications with the aircraft under their control, unable to see, hear, or talk to them,' the National Air Traffic Controllers Association (NATCA) told Quartz. The incident came after an American Airlines flight collided with a U.S. Army Blackhawk Helicopter over the Potomac killing everyone on board and adding further scrutiny to the Federal Aviation Administrations and its 50-year-old technology. While there were no accidents as a result of the outage at Newark, the 60- to 90-second darkness 'was the most dangerous situation you could have,' an on duty air traffic controller told CNN. Following the outage, some employees 'who work Newark arrivals and departures have taken time off to recover from the stress of multiple recent outages,' the Federal Aviation Administration posted on X. Under the Federal Employees' Compensation Act, air traffic controllers are allowed to take a 45-day 'trauma leave' after a stressful event. A supervisor, three controllers, and a trainee were among those who took the 45-day leave, another air traffic controller told CNN. 'While we cannot replace them due to this highly specialized profession, we continue to train controllers who will eventually be assigned to this busy airspace,' the Federal Aviation Administration posted on X. The ranks of qualified air traffic controllers are sparse. In January, NATCA President Nick Daniels said in an interview with CBS News that there are 10,800 air traffic controllers, but the number should be 14,335. Additionally, more than 90% of the nation's air traffic control facilities fall below the recommended staffing levels, The New York Times reported. NATCA did not return Fortune's request for comment. 'It takes a long time to train [an] air traffic controller,' Aimer said. According to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) website, entry-level applicants must 'spend several months' completing training courses at the agency's academy before gaining two to three years of classroom and hands-on experience. 'A lot of these guys, they burn out,' Aimer said. 'They can't finish the training, which is very grueling,' Due to the staffing shortage in Newark, United Airlines pulled 35 round-trip flights to the airport. 'Keep in mind, this particular air traffic control facility has been chronically understaffed for years and without these controllers, it's now clear — and the FAA tells us — that Newark airport cannot handle the number of planes that are scheduled to operate there in the weeks and months ahead,' United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby said in a statement. Currently the Philadelphia-based tower in charge of Newark has '22 fully certified controllers and 21 controllers and supervisors in training,' according to an FAA statement obtained by Fortune. 'We have a healthy pipeline with training classes filled through July 2026,' The FAA wrote. This story was originally featured on
Reuters
22-03-2025
- Business
- Reuters
US FAA pilot safety messaging system resumes operations after outage
WASHINGTON, March 22 (Reuters) - A U.S. Federal Aviation Administration system that provides safety messages to pilots experienced an outage for several hours on Saturday before resuming operations, the agency and airlines said. The outage of the "Notice to Airmen" system for more than three hours on Saturday was due to a hardware issue. In early February, the system known as NOTAM also suffered a failure. Make sense of the latest ESG trends affecting companies and governments with the Reuters Sustainable Switch newsletter. Sign up here. The FAA said the main NOTAM system "experienced a temporary outage and the system was reset." The agency said it was "investigating the root cause ... closely monitoring the situation." The NOTAM system provides pilots, flight crews and other users of U.S. airspace with critical safety notices. It could include items such as taxiway lights being out at an airport, nearby parachute activity or a specific runway being closed for construction. "All active NOTAMs were available until the time of the outage," the FAA said. On Friday, U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said he would announce a plan next week to drastically overhaul the aging U.S. air traffic control system. A NOTAM outage in January 2023 disrupted more than 11,000 flights in the first nationwide U.S. ground stop since 2001. A ground stop is an air traffic management initiative in which no aircraft meeting certain criteria can take off. The FAA said in 2023 it planned to discontinue an older NOTAM system by mid-2025. National Air Traffic Controllers Association President Nick Daniels told Congress this month the NOTAM system has led to significant disruptions. "At minimum, the FAA will need $154 million just to conduct further research on a replacement NOTAM system, but will need $354 million to replace the broken NOTAM system," Daniels said. The Government Accountability Office has said the FAA must take urgent action to address aging air traffic control systems, saying that one-third are unsustainable.
CNN
08-03-2025
- Politics
- CNN
The US is struggling to hire air traffic controllers. A surprising age limit and grueling schedules could fuel the problem
Every day, millions of travelers' lives are literally up in the air, relying on the acuity of air traffic controllers to orchestrate high-speed maneuvers and help prevent aircraft from crashing. But the shortage of air traffic controllers is nearly the worst in 30 years, said the National Air Traffic Controllers Association, which represents 10,800 certified ATCs across the country. The shortfall has forced many to work 'six days a week, 10 hours a day – for years at a time,' union President Nick Daniels testified at a House subcommittee hearing this week. The US needs more than 3,000 new air traffic controllers to reach adequate staffing, he said. And recent, high-profile incidents have highlighted the scarcity and workload of exhausted air traffic controllers. 'What is new – or more problematic or more common now – is the use of overtime,' said Michael McCormick, a professor and air traffic management coordinator at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. 'I would say your larger facilities are probably more problematic in use of overtime than the smaller facilities – just where you don't want it the most.' In January, a commercial jet and a military helicopter collided midair near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, killing 67 people. While authorities have not identified the cause of that catastrophe, CNN has confirmed one air traffic controller was staffing two different jobs in the tower – handling both local air traffic and helicopter traffic in the area. And investigators recently said a near collision in 2023 was caused by an air traffic controller who was distracted by a third plane, though their report did not explicitly cite staffing shortage or exhaustion. The federal government recently announced pay boosts for new air traffic controllers and more efficient hiring processes. But anyone over age 31 is too old to apply, limiting the hiring pool. And the vast majority of controllers are forced to leave their jobs a decade before standard retirement age. Air traffic control applicants must be less than 31 years old so they can work the mandatory 20 or 25 years needed to qualify for pensions before their mandatory retirement age of 56, an FAA spokesperson said. While that age cutoff might seem young, ATCs must have incredible physical stamina and mental sharpness, McCormick said. 'When you first start at an air traffic control facility, you have to do a lot of memorization,' McCormick said. 'You have to memorize what's known as the radar map. You have to know what every single dot dashed line means on the map. You have to memorize how the airspace is sectorized. So think of Tetris. There's multiple layers and shapes that all fit together into a puzzle. That's what airspace is like, too.' But this Tetris-style puzzle is 'in three dimensions. So you have to memorize the geographical confines of all the sectors and the altitude limitations,' McCormick said. Most air traffic controllers don't just monitor one airport. Many keep tabs on dozens of other regional airports to make sure planes keep a safe distance from each other. At Philadelphia's main airport, 'there's also 72 satellite airports in the airspace that you also have to know,' said McCormick, who worked in that airport's traffic control tower. 'You provide approach control services (to) all those airports, too. So all that needs to be memorized … you can't waste time and energy looking something up or trying to remember something.' The cognitive challenges intensify with age and when air traffic controllers move to larger airports – forcing them to memorize significantly more data and track more regional airports, McCormick said. The head of the Department of Government Efficiency, Elon Musk, has touted slashing government jobs in an array of departments. But he recently asked retired air traffic controllers to consider returning to work. 'There is a shortage of top notch air traffic controllers,' Musk posted on X. 'If you have retired, but are open to returning to work, please consider doing so.' But it's unlikely retirees will return to control towers because of a federal law requiring air traffic controllers to retire by age 56. In rare cases, ATCs can get one-year waivers to keep working up to age 60, if they show strong mental and physical ability, McCormick said. And ATCs can still work elsewhere after their mandated retirement from air traffic control. But many choose to retire by age 56 – if not earlier – due to generous pensions, McCormick said. 'Unlike traditional federal employees that need 30 years of service to retire, air traffic controllers are able to retire at age 50 with at least 20 years of service or any age with at least 25 years,' the FAA said. 'Retirement annuity is a guaranteed income for a person during their retirement years. Air traffic controllers receive a more generous annuity than traditional federal employees.' But given the dearth of air traffic controllers, McCormick recommends studying whether it'd be safe to raise the mandatory retirement age to allow those who are still mentally and physically sharp to work beyond age 56 if they want to do so. 'There needs to be funded research on 'is that mandatory retirement age still valid?' Because that has been in place since the 1970s,' McCormick said. 'And since that time, there has never been any effort to validate: Is that good? Is it not good? Has the aging process changed over time?' Since new hires often require years of training, 'if you can extend people who are eligible to retire (by) one to five years, that gives a chance for the FAA to build their workforce back up,' McCormick said. The US Department of Transportation has not responded to why the specific age of 56 was chosen or whether it is considering adjusting the age limits. The scarcity of air traffic controllers isn't due to a lack of applicants. It's the lack of qualified applicants who meet the FAA's rigorous requirements. 'Less than 10% of all applicants meet these requirements and are accepted into the training program,' the FAA said. Some applicants don't pass the medical and security clearances. And many don't make it through the strenuous academy and training. 'It's a rigorous training process,' Daniels told CNN last month. 'So it's not like today we could go out and hire the 3,600. It takes two to three years to get a controller from being qualified … just to enter the job.' After that, there are 'multiple points where they can fail out of being an air traffic controller – everything from academy to simulation training locally and then eventually talking to aircraft on their own.' With the current staffing deficit, about 41% of air traffic controllers must work 60-hour weeks, the union said. The mandatory rest period between shifts has increased from eight hours to 10 hours – though that includes time to commute home. But there are no mandates requiring two days off at the end of work weeks, meaning many ATCs have only a 24-hour weekend before starting another work week. While controllers get extra pay for mandatory overtime, grueling 60-hour work weeks can fuel attrition. And the longer the staffing shortages persist, the longer some ATCs risk exhaustion and burnout. 'The past hiring rate was not keeping up with the natural attrition of workers leaving the profession due to retirement or other stresses of the job,' said Galen Munroe, a spokesperson for the ATC union. McCormick attributes the ongoing shortfall to the 'inability to hire and train controllers due to things like Covid, the recession, government shutdowns.' The number of air traffic controllers started plummeting around 2013, after a government shutdown, McCormick said. Since then, every time the government has shut down, training and hiring for air traffic controllers have come to a screeching halt. Recruits at the FAA's training academy in Oklahoma City must be sent home. Now, experts worry a potential government shutdown on March 14 will exacerbate the shortage. 'If there's a government shutdown on March 14th, it's going to make a mess of our hiring and training and control,' McCormick said. To combat the shortfall, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy announced 'a new plan to supercharge the hiring of air traffic controllers.' The current hiring window is open through March 17, 'and we are making it more efficient than ever to apply and more affordable to begin training,' the FAA said. The starting pay during academy training will jump from $17.61 an hour to $22.61, the agency said. 'Pay continues to increase as you gain more experience and earn professional certifications,' the FAA said. 'Within three years of graduating the Academy, the average certified professional controller earns over $160,000 per year.' And the old, eight-step hiring process that can last well over a year is being replaced with a faster, five-step hiring method. For example, the FAA can now work to process medical and security clearances at the same time, rather than waiting for one to finish before starting the other. The streamlined process 'will accelerate the time-to-hire for these critical positions by shaving more than four months off the old process.' The FAA said it has already made gains in the past year, exceeding its goal of hiring 1,800 air traffic controllers in 2024 – the highest number in nearly a decade. McCormick said the FAA could go further to get young people interested in becoming air traffic controllers. 'I think they need to start reaching out more to high school age (students) and do heavier recruiting at a younger age,' he said. But the ongoing shortfall – and never-ending attrition – mean the problem won't be solved quickly. 'It's going to take time,' he said. 'It's going to take years to fill that gap.' CNN's Chris Isidore, Alexandra Skores and Alta Spells contributed to this report.
CNN
08-03-2025
- Politics
- CNN
The US is struggling to hire air traffic controllers. A surprising age limit and grueling schedules could fuel the problem
Every day, millions of travelers' lives are literally up in the air, relying on the acuity of air traffic controllers to orchestrate high-speed maneuvers and help prevent aircraft from crashing. But the shortage of air traffic controllers is nearly the worst in 30 years, said the National Air Traffic Controllers Association, which represents 10,800 certified ATCs across the country. The shortfall has forced many to work 'six days a week, 10 hours a day – for years at a time,' union President Nick Daniels testified at a House subcommittee hearing this week. The US needs more than 3,000 new air traffic controllers to reach adequate staffing, he said. And recent, high-profile incidents have highlighted the scarcity and workload of exhausted air traffic controllers. 'What is new – or more problematic or more common now – is the use of overtime,' said Michael McCormick, a professor and air traffic management coordinator at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. 'I would say your larger facilities are probably more problematic in use of overtime than the smaller facilities – just where you don't want it the most.' In January, a commercial jet and a military helicopter collided midair near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, killing 67 people. While authorities have not identified the cause of that catastrophe, CNN has confirmed one air traffic controller was staffing two different jobs in the tower – handling both local air traffic and helicopter traffic in the area. And investigators recently said a near collision in 2023 was caused by an air traffic controller who was distracted by a third plane, though their report did not explicitly cite staffing shortage or exhaustion. The federal government recently announced pay boosts for new air traffic controllers and more efficient hiring processes. But anyone over age 31 is too old to apply, limiting the hiring pool. And the vast majority of controllers are forced to leave their jobs a decade before standard retirement age. Air traffic control applicants must be less than 31 years old so they can work the mandatory 20 or 25 years needed to qualify for pensions before their mandatory retirement age of 56, an FAA spokesperson said. While that age cutoff might seem young, ATCs must have incredible physical stamina and mental sharpness, McCormick said. 'When you first start at an air traffic control facility, you have to do a lot of memorization,' McCormick said. 'You have to memorize what's known as the radar map. You have to know what every single dot dashed line means on the map. You have to memorize how the airspace is sectorized. So think of Tetris. There's multiple layers and shapes that all fit together into a puzzle. That's what airspace is like, too.' But this Tetris-style puzzle is 'in three dimensions. So you have to memorize the geographical confines of all the sectors and the altitude limitations,' McCormick said. Most air traffic controllers don't just monitor one airport. Many keep tabs on dozens of other regional airports to make sure planes keep a safe distance from each other. At Philadelphia's main airport, 'there's also 72 satellite airports in the airspace that you also have to know,' said McCormick, who worked in that airport's traffic control tower. 'You provide approach control services (to) all those airports, too. So all that needs to be memorized … you can't waste time and energy looking something up or trying to remember something.' The cognitive challenges intensify with age and when air traffic controllers move to larger airports – forcing them to memorize significantly more data and track more regional airports, McCormick said. The head of the Department of Government Efficiency, Elon Musk, has touted slashing government jobs in an array of departments. But he recently asked retired air traffic controllers to consider returning to work. 'There is a shortage of top notch air traffic controllers,' Musk posted on X. 'If you have retired, but are open to returning to work, please consider doing so.' But it's unlikely retirees will return to control towers because of a federal law requiring air traffic controllers to retire by age 56. In rare cases, ATCs can get one-year waivers to keep working up to age 60, if they show strong mental and physical ability, McCormick said. And ATCs can still work elsewhere after their mandated retirement from air traffic control. But many choose to retire by age 56 – if not earlier – due to generous pensions, McCormick said. 'Unlike traditional federal employees that need 30 years of service to retire, air traffic controllers are able to retire at age 50 with at least 20 years of service or any age with at least 25 years,' the FAA said. 'Retirement annuity is a guaranteed income for a person during their retirement years. Air traffic controllers receive a more generous annuity than traditional federal employees.' But given the dearth of air traffic controllers, McCormick recommends studying whether it'd be safe to raise the mandatory retirement age to allow those who are still mentally and physically sharp to work beyond age 56 if they want to do so. 'There needs to be funded research on 'is that mandatory retirement age still valid?' Because that has been in place since the 1970s,' McCormick said. 'And since that time, there has never been any effort to validate: Is that good? Is it not good? Has the aging process changed over time?' Since new hires often require years of training, 'if you can extend people who are eligible to retire (by) one to five years, that gives a chance for the FAA to build their workforce back up,' McCormick said. The US Department of Transportation has not responded to why the specific age of 56 was chosen or whether it consider adjusting the age limits. The scarcity of air traffic controllers isn't due to a lack of applicants. It's the lack of qualified applicants who meet the FAA's rigorous requirements. 'Less than 10% of all applicants meet these requirements and are accepted into the training program,' the FAA said. Some applicants don't pass the medical and security clearances. And many don't make it through the strenuous academy and training. 'It's a rigorous training process,' Daniels told CNN last month. 'So it's not like today we could go out and hire the 3,600. It takes two to three years to get a controller from being qualified … just to enter the job.' After that, there are 'multiple points where they can fail out of being an air traffic controller – everything from academy to simulation training locally and then eventually talking to aircraft on their own.' With the current staffing deficit, about 41% of air traffic controllers must work 60-hour weeks, the union said. The mandatory rest period between shifts has increased from eight hours to 10 hours – though that includes time to commute home. But there are no mandates requiring two days off at the end of work weeks, meaning many ATCs have only a 24-hour weekend before starting another work week. While controllers get extra pay for mandatory overtime, grueling 60-hour work weeks can fuel attrition. And the longer the staffing shortages persist, the longer some ATCs risk exhaustion and burnout. 'The past hiring rate was not keeping up with the natural attrition of workers leaving the profession due to retirement or other stresses of the job,' said Galen Munroe, a spokesperson for the ATC union. McCormick attributes the ongoing shortfall to the 'inability to hire and train controllers due to things like Covid, the recession, government shutdowns.' The number of air traffic controllers started plummeting around 2013, after a government shutdown, McCormick said. Since then, every time the government has shut down, training and hiring for air traffic controllers have come to a screeching halt. Recruits at the FAA's training academy in Oklahoma City must be sent home. Now, experts worry a potential government shutdown on March 14 will exacerbate the shortage. 'If there's a government shutdown on March 14th, it's going to make a mess of our hiring and training and control,' McCormick said. To combat the shortfall, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy announced 'a new plan to supercharge the hiring of air traffic controllers.' The current hiring window is open through March 17, 'and we are making it more efficient than ever to apply and more affordable to begin training,' the FAA said. The starting pay during academy training will jump from $17.61 an hour to $22.61, the agency said. 'Pay continues to increase as you gain more experience and earn professional certifications,' the FAA said. 'Within three years of graduating the Academy, the average certified professional controller earns over $160,000 per year.' And the old, eight-step hiring process that can last well over a year is being replaced with a faster, five-step hiring method. For example, the FAA can now work to process medical and security clearances at the same time, rather than waiting for one to finish before starting the other. The streamlined process 'will accelerate the time-to-hire for these critical positions by shaving more than four months off the old process.' The FAA said it has already made gains in the past year, exceeding its goal of hiring 1,800 air traffic controllers in 2024 – the highest number in nearly a decade. McCormick said the FAA could go further to get young people interested in becoming air traffic controllers. 'I think they need to start reaching out more to high school age (students) and do heavier recruiting at a younger age,' he said. But the ongoing shortfall – and never-ending attrition – mean the problem won't be solved quickly. 'It's going to take time,' he said. 'It's going to take years to fill that gap.' CNN's Chris Isidore, Alexandra Skores and Alta Spells contributed to this report.
