Scott Turner used to jump out of airplanes. <\/p>\n
A skydiver in his youth, Turner cultivated a passion for air travel early. These days, he\u2019s got his feet firmly planted in San Angelo, where he helped start the only college program for air traffic controllers in Texas, at Angelo State University. <\/p>\n
Until recently, anyone who wanted to become an air traffic controller had to attend the FAA Academy in Oklahoma City. Since last year, prospective controllers have other options. Seven colleges across the country have partnered with the FAA, offering the same courses and comprehensive training to students that the FAA Academy does. <\/p>\n
Angelo State made a first step toward joining these seven schools in July, when it became part of the FAA\u2019s Air Traffic Collegiate Training Initiative, Turner said. Turner, who is the director of Angelo State\u2019s commercial aviation program, said students who take air traffic control courses at Angelo State will still have to attend the Academy, but would be able to skip a few weeks of courses.<\/p>\n
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By signing up, you agree to our\u00a0Terms of Service<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Privacy Policy.<\/a><\/p>\n By 2027, Angelo State expects to have completed its transition into an enhanced AT-CTI school, meaning it would be an alternative to the Academy for prospective controllers. Programs like these could help ease the country\u2019s air traffic controller shortage<\/a> by making it possible for more controllers to receive training each year. <\/p>\n The industry has long faced a shortage.<\/p>\n The state of the air traffic control industry <\/p>\n In 2024, there were 13,774 controllers working nationwide \u2014 a little over 800 short of the FAA\u2019s stated targets for the year. The FAA is making some progress toward closing this gap: In a statement, the FAA said that it has already met its hiring target for 2025, having hired 2,026 controllers this year. However, more controllers left the industry this year because of the protracted government shutdown, with retirement rates during the shutdown more than triple the usual, according to Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy. <\/p>\n In Dallas-Fort Worth, the FAA\u2019s towers just met staffing targets in 2024, with 496 controllers to the FAA\u2019s target of 490, according to The Dallas Morning News\u2019 analysis. Just one year before, the local towers had surpassed the FAA\u2019s targets by more than 90 controllers. <\/p>\n Turner attributed the national shortage largely to the nature of the training and recruitment process, and the structure of the industry as a whole. <\/p>\n Becoming an air traffic controller is difficult. Prospective controllers must be under 31, pass a litany of security and aptitude exams and pass through the FAA\u2019s air traffic control curriculum. Once they graduate from the Academy, they spend a couple of years as controllers in development at an actual FAA facility. If they are successful, they will be considered certified professional controllers. Median pay for an air traffic controller in 2024 was $144,580, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. <\/p>\n Last year, more than 700 prospective controllers did not make it through this process, according to the FAA. <\/p>\n Another reason for the shortage, Turner said, is that controllers face a mandatory retirement age of 56. Between 2006 and 2015, thousands of controllers retired as they aged out of the industry; according to a 2019 FAA report<\/a>, these were primarily members of a cohort of more than 27,000 controllers hired right after a Reagan-era controller strike, which led to mass firings. <\/p>\n Anticipating this exodus of controllers, the FAA explored opportunities for new entry points into the industry in the years leading up to the turn of the century. <\/p>\n In the early 1990s, the FAA developed the AT-CTI program. It was designed to take some pressure off of the Academy as the sole trainer. Today, there are 35 AT-CTI institutions across the country, according to the FAA\u2019s website<\/a>, including Angelo State. <\/p>\n Federal employees \u2018casualties\u2019 of shutdowns<\/p>\n The enhanced AT-CTI program has offered the country more ways to train air traffic controllers. But, the recent government shutdown has revealed the potential uncertainty that comes with the career path. <\/p>\n \u201cImagine you\u2019re a parent and your son or daughter comes to you and says, \u2018Hey, I want to be an air traffic controller,\u2019\u201d Turner said. \u201cAnd you go, \u2018That\u2019s great, because every now and then, they just won\u2019t pay you for a while.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n The 2025 shutdown lasted 43 days, the longest in American history. <\/p>\n During it, controllers were asked to work without pay. As the shutdown progressed, reports of staffing triggers, issued by FAA facilities when the number of people on staff drops below the average for that shift, trended upward. <\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s one thing to be stressed and do work when you\u2019re going to get paid,\u201d said Joel Martinez, an aviation management professor at Baylor University. \u201cIt\u2019s another thing to be stressed and do that type of work when you don\u2019t know when you\u2019re going to be paid, and you haven\u2019t been paid, and your bills are due, and you have these other stresses.\u201d<\/p>\n In Dallas-Fort Worth, FAA facilities reported 62 staffing triggers during the government shutdown, according to The News\u2019 analysis. Over the same time period last year, these facilities only reported nine staffing triggers. <\/p>\n Facilities\u2019 response to a staffing trigger can range from business as usual to instituting ground stops, which can cause delays. <\/p>\n Government shutdowns are hard on federal workers. And they\u2019ve been getting longer and more frequent, said William Resh, a professor at Georgia State University who studies the effects of shutdowns. <\/p>\n Resh and his colleagues compared the state of various government agencies before and after shutdowns, focusing on the effects of the 2013 and 2018\u201319 shutdowns. They found that shutdowns reduce worker morale, increase rates of workers leaving their jobs and reduce people\u2019s interest in applying to work for the federal government. <\/p>\n The FAA noted in its 2025 workforce plan that the 2018\u201329 shutdown \u201cresulted in large hiring and training delays\u201d for its air traffic controllers. The number of fully certified air traffic controllers at North Texas FAA facilities dropped from 384 in 2018 to 376 two years later, according to The News\u2019 analysis. <\/p>\n