The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) training academy in Oklahoma City has been closed thanks to the federal government shutdown along with classroom and simulator training at air traffic control facilities.
The academy’s closure would lead to fewer new FAA hires in fiscal year 2019, exacerbating the current controller staffing crisis, the National Air Traffic Controllers Association (NATCA) said.
In the past six years, the number of fully certified controllers has dropped more than 10 percent, reaching a 30-year low.
“This staffing crisis is negatively affecting the National Airspace System, and the shutdown almost certainly will make a bad situation worse,” NATCA President Paul Rinaldi said. “Even before the shutdown, controllers have needed to work longer and harder to make up for the staffing shortfall. Overtime in the form of six-day weeks and 10-hour days is common at many of the nation’s busiest and most short-staffed facilities including radar facilities in New York, Chicago, Atlanta, and Dallas. And none of the controllers forced to work during this shutdown will see pay for their hard work to keep travelers safe until the shutdown ends.”
Additionally, new hires who recently graduated from the academy are furloughed and their critical training is halted, NATCA said.