U.S. air traffic controller ranks 6% fewer than a decade ago, GAO finds

The U.S. shortage has been building through disruptions rather than a single cause. The GAO traces much of the decline to training interruptions: government shutdowns in 2013 and in 2018 and 2019 froze hiring and training, and the COVID-19 pandemic halted training for four months, then held it at reduced capacity for nearly two years. High attrition from 2019 through 2024 made it harder to catch up. The 2025 shutdown made things worse: by November of that year, the FAA said nearly half of major air traffic control facilities were short-staffed as controllers worked without pay.

Other countries are responding by recruiting across borders. Airservices Australia posted a call for experienced international controllers, offering a work visa with eligibility to transition to permanent residency; Qatar has been recruiting Airservices Australia controllers, Canada's NAV CANADA used an outside firm to recruit eight foreign controllers, and South Africa lost 28 controllers in eight months. The country that trains a controller usually bears the full cost of that training, even if the controller later leaves, according to a spokesperson for the industry group CANSO. The U.S. cannot join that bidding war because every FAA controller must be an American citizen.

The FAA has lowered its own staffing goal. In May, it cut its target by about 2,000 controllers, citing forecast demand and changes to scheduling and training; the National Air Traffic Controllers Association said it was not involved in drafting the plan. The agency has also experimented at the margins, including a 2024 pilot program that let graduates of two Oklahoma schools skip additional FAA Academy training and go straight to facility training. But certifying a controller still takes years, and until the pipeline catches up, travelers should expect more delays.