In its
just-released paper, FAA Needs to Better Prepare for Impending
Wave of Controller Attrition, The Government Accounting Office
says the FAA's headed for trouble.
Not only are the FAA's hiring practices inadequate to the task
of hiring the thousands of controllers who will be needed as the
post-PATCO hires retire over the next few years, the FAA's ideas of
extending their retirement age past 56 will present safety issues,
as well.
Although the exact number and timing of the
controllers’ departures is impossible to determine, attrition
scenarios developed by both FAA and GAO indicate that the total
attrition will grow substantially in the short and long terms. As a
result, FAA will likely need to hire thousands of air traffic
controllers in the next decade to meet increasing traffic demands
and to address the anticipated attrition of experienced
controllers, predominately because of retirement.
The FAA hasn't, for whatever reasons, implemented a human
resources strategy to deal with the impending retirements, which,
the GAO figures, will double over the next few years.
FAA has not developed a comprehensive human
capital workforce strategy to address its impending controller
needs. Rather, FAA’s strategy for replacing controllers is
generally to hire new controllers only when current, experienced
controllers leave. GAO’s review identified challenges that
FAA will face in trying to ensure that well-qualified new
controllers are available when needed. For example, FAA’s
hiring process does not adequately take into account the potential
increases in future hiring and the time necessary to fully train
replacements. In addition, there is uncertainty about the ability
of FAA’s new aptitude test to identify the best controller
candidates. Further, FAA has not addressed the resources that
may be needed at its training academy and for providing
on-the-job training at its control facilities in order to handle
the large influx of new controllers and to ensure that FAA’s
controller workforce will continue to have the knowledge, skills,
and abilities necessary to perform its critical mission. Finally,
exemptions to the age-56 separation rules raise safety and equity
issues that FAA has not assessed.
NATCA Responded:
"This report says it all," said John Carr, president of
the controllers' union. "We're going to lose one in every three
controllers we have in the next five years, and the Federal
Aviation Administration's plans are inadequate for making up
for that shortfall."
The whole report will make you want to get your own ultralight,
and stay out of controlled airspace altogether. That idea,
if implemented on a giant scale, would surely initiate its own set
of problems...
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