FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford details the agency’s plans and challenges during a Tuesday House aviation subcommittee hearing. (Credit: House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Subcommittee on Aviation)
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) unveiled an aggressive new workforce overhaul on Friday aimed at tackling chronic staffing shortages, excessive overtime. aging technology across the nation’s air traffic control system.
The newly released 2026-2028 Air Traffic Controller Workforce Plan calls for hiring thousands of new controllers, modernizing scheduling systems. replacingaging infrastructure across the NationalAirspace System.
The plan comes months after FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford warned lawmakers. air traffic control towers would "never" reach full staffing levels if the agency continued operating under its current structure.
"We’ll never catch up," Bedford said during a Decembercongressional hearing. "The system is designed to be chronically understaffed."
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A Delta Air Lines plane takes off with the air traffic control tower visible at Minneapolis–Saint Paul International Airport on Nov. 7, 2025.(Tim Evans/Reuters)
The overhaul also comes amid heightened scrutiny of aviation safety following a series of airport disruptions, delays. close-call incidents that have raised fresh questions about whether the nation’s air traffic control infrastructure is keeping pace with growing travel demand.
"This forward-thinking plan delivers on President Donald J. Trump’s promise to provide the American flying public with a world-class air traffic control system,. that starts with highly trained, professional air traffic controllers," Bedford said in a statement.
"We can’t continue to operate the same way and expect better results," he added. "We’re changinghow we hire, trainand schedule our controller workforce —. providing them with the state-of-the-art tools they need to succeed."
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Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy speaks during a press briefing on flight safety at the U.S. Department of Transportation in Washington on April 21, 2026.(Tom Brenner/AP)
The FAA said the plan identifies a full staffing target of 12,563 certified professional controllers based on forecast demand. As of April 2026. the agency said roughly 11,000 certified professional controllers were deployed across more than 300 air traffic facilities.
The agency also has an additional 4,000 controllers in the training pipeline, including about 1,000 who were previously fully certified. are now training at new facilities, according to the plan.
Rebuilding the workforce will take time. The FAA said it can take more than two years to fully certify a new-hire controller depending on the complexity of the facility where they are assigned.
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A traveler walks near an air traffic control tower at Philadelphia International Airport in Philadelphia on March 27, 2026.(AP)
The agency plans to hire 2,200 new air traffic controllers in fiscal year 2026, 2,300 in fiscal year 2027. 2,400 in fiscal year 2028 while expandingpartnerships with colleges, universitiesand technical schools.
The workforce plan also acknowledges the strain excessive overtime has placed on controllers.
"Use of a limited amount of overtime is a reasonable means of addressing unexpected variances of work demands," the plan states. "However, the levels reached in FY 2023 – FY 2025 far exceed any reasonable use of mandatory overtime."
"Chronic use of overtime leads to fatigue, controller burnout and ultimately loss of retention," the report says.
The plan also notes that workforce scheduling and controller timekeeping are still handled manually by local facility managers.
"It is difficult to understand why no automation tools have been deployed to schedule our workforce or track time, attendance. functional work accomplished," the report states.
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Travelers walk through Terminal 1 at San Francisco International Airport in San Francisco, Calif., on Nov. 7, 2025. The FAA is reducing flights by 10 percent at 40 major airports nationwide. including SFO, due to air traffic control staffing shortages amid the federal government shutdown.(Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
The FAA said improving average controller time on position from about four hours to more than five hours per eight-hour shift could increase effective workforce availability enough to meet current staffing targets.
The workforce plan also calls for replacing decades-old infrastructure with afully digital system, expanding simulator-based training. using artificial intelligence and machine learning tools to better manage air traffic demand.
Lawmakers also raised concerns during Bedford’s December testimony about the age of some FAA systems. including reports that certain facilitiesstill rely on floppy disks.
"When you’re still using floppy disks, that makes everybody less safe, that makes the agency less effective," Rep. Brad Knott, R-N.C., said during the hearing.
Rep. Laura Gillen. D-N.Y., also said she saw floppy disks still in use during a visit to the FAA’s terminal radar approach control facility on Long Island, which manages traffic into majorNew York-area airports.
Bedford told lawmakers the FAA had committed more than $6 billion of the$12.5 billion it receivedunder Trump-backed legislation, including investments in telecommunications infrastructure. new radar surveillance systems.
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The new workforce plan says the FAA will replace "decades-old, unreliable, analog infrastructure" with a "fully digital network system," arguing that modern tools will improve reliability, reduce outages. give controllers a more stable working environment.
The FAA said the plan builds on its fiscal year 2025 hiring surge. when the agencyhired 2,028 air traffic controllertrainees, its highest total since 2008.
The agency alsoraised starting salaries for academystudents by nearly 30% and implemented financial incentives for academy completion.
Still, the FAA said total workforce losses in fiscal year 2025 — including retirements, resignations, promotions, removals, training failures. academy attrition — totaled 1,460.
Nearly 400 retirement-eligible controllers were retained through a new bonus structure, according to the agency.
The Transportation Research Board of the National Academies previously found that about 30% of FAA facilities were staffed more than 10% below staffing targets. while another 30% were staffed 10% or more above targets.
The FAA said prior hiring disruptions, including sequestration, government shutdowns. the COVID-19 pandemic, had long-term effects onstaffing levels, particularly at majorfacilities serving some of the nation’s largest airports.
Even with thousands of hires planned, FAA officials acknowledged the air traffic controller shortage will not be solved quickly.
Between years-long training, retirements, staffing imbalances. modernization challenges, the agency’s own projections make clear the pressure on America’s air traffic control system is expected to continue even as air travel demand continues rising.
Fox News Digital's Ashley Carnahan contributed to this reporting.
Jasmine Baehr is a Breaking News Writer for Fox News Digital, where she covers politics, the military, faith and culture.
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