Controller Shortage On The Horizon?

A government report says that thousands of air traffic controllers hired after the 1981 strike are getting ready to retire and suggests that the Federal Aviation Administration isn't doing enough to find and train replacements for workers who are expected to retire.

The General Accounting Office, the investigative arm of Congress, said almost 70 percent of the current 20,000 controllers and supervisors will be eligible to retire by September 2011. Around half are expected to leave, according to the GAO report.

"Because of the significant hiring in the 1980s to replace strikers who had been fired, many thousands of FAA's controllers will soon become eligible to retire, leaving FAA with too few fully trained controllers," said the report released Monday.

President Reagan fired thousands of controllers after they went on strike in 1981, and the government had to hire replacements. They can retire after 25 years of service at any age, retire at age 50 after 20 years of service, or must leave at age 56. About 700 strikers who were later rehired have no mandatory retirement age.

FAA spokesman Fraser Jones said there will be no shortage of trained controllers.

"We have an aggressive plan to assure there are significant air traffic controllers available to staff the entire air traffic control system and meet the needs of the flying public," he said.

House aviation subcommittee chairman John Mica, R-Fla., who requested the study, said he was concerned about the findings.

"A cadre of experienced air traffic controllers is vital to the success of the airlines and the aviation system," Mica said.

The GAO found the FAA was not adequately prepared to replace the retiring controllers, "thus increasing the risk that FAA will not have enough qualified controllers when necessary to meet air traffic demands."

For example, the FAA generally hires replacements only when there are openings, not taking into account that it takes five years to adequately train a new controller, the GAO said.

The president of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association agreed.

"We've always said controllers are like runways - it takes three to five years to make a good one," president John Carr said. "We need to hire a bubble of controllers that will move our National Airspace System smoothly through the next decade without the turbulence of short staffing and its numerous associated problems."

President Bush has proposed studying whether to bring in a private company to take over the air traffic control system. Earlier this month, he quietly signed an executive order stripping controllers of guaranteed government jobs.

Transportation Secretary Norman Y. Mineta said the president acted solely to ensure that the FAA could continue to have private companies run control towers at 206 small airports.

By Jonathan D. Salant