Says US Needs More Air Traffic Controllers
Just how much should the FAA
spend to hire more controllers? Senator Charles Schumer says $47.7
million more for FY2008 -- that's triple the amount the agency was
to spend on recruitment for the year.
In a statement Sunday, Senator Schumer warned of more flight
delays and safety problems unless the congress addresses FAA
understaffing.
"Air traffic controllers are the eyes and the ears of airport
safety, and in 2006 we saw that a reduction in controllers results
in a spike in the number of close calls and even tragic accidents,"
Schumer said in a statement to reporters Sunday. "New York’s
depleted air traffic control towers will become increasingly
overwhelmed when it comes to safely and efficiently directing
planes through the city’s congested airspace."
The FAA's original $18.2 million request for controller
recruitment and training was clipped to $15.9 million, which
according to Schumer would allow for 114 new controllers
nationwide. Quoting FAA estimates, he says 7,100 controllers -- or
45 percent of its workforce -- will retire within eight years.
New York's three major airports were among the worst in the
nation for delays according to December figures from the Bureau of
Transportation Statistics says Schumer, and he blames the problem
on staffing. Schumer says the towers at LaGuardia and Kennedy
should each have 36 controllers, and Newark Liberty should have 40.
They currently staff 27, 30 and 29 respectively.
Schumer also suggests controllers are retiring at higher rates
because of recent FAA cutbacks in overtime pay, while lower
entry-level pay hurts recruitment efforts.
The FAA refutes those assertions however. Agency spokeswoman
Laura Brown told the Associated Press retirements are due in large
part to a reduction in air traffic since the 9/11 terrorist
attacks.
Brown says Schumer's figures regarding staffing at New York's
airports are based on a 2003 labor agreement. "Our New York
airports are well-staffed," she said.
As for recruiting, Brown says, "We have 2,000 people waiting to
be hired," she said. "We are having no trouble recruiting."
Brown says the FAA hired 1,100 controllers last year and expects
to up that figure to 1,300 for 2007. Butin a recent statement, the
National Air Traffic Controllers Association -- the union
representing the nation's controllers -- claims controller
attrition rates still exceed new hires.