Air Traffic Control Facility Staffing

This report provides the results of the Dept. of Transportation¿s Office of Inspector Gen¿s. review of controller staffing at 3 FAA facilities in Calif.: the L.A. International Airport Traffic Control Tower , the S. Calif. Terminal Radar Approach Control, and the N. Calif. TRACON. This review was conducted at the request of Sen. Dianne Feinstein of Calif., who expressed concerns about potential shortages of trained and experienced controllers at these locations, which are some of the Nation¿s busiest facilities. Ensuring these air traffic control facilities remain adequately staffed with qualified air traffic controllers is critical to the safety and efficiency of the entire National Airspace System. This review was conducted between June 2008 and Jan. 2009.

Reviews the methodologies by which Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) estimates and applies its staffing standards, examines the feasibility and cost of modifying agency staffing standards and developing alternative approaches for application to individual facilities, and recommends an improvement strategy.

TRB has released the final version of Special Report 314: The Federal Aviation Administration’s Approach for Determining Future Air Traffic Controller Staffing Needs that examines the methods used by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to estimate how many controllers are needed to staff its air traffic control facilities and its processes for using these estimates to properly distribute controllers across facilities. According to the report, the FAA’s models for determining air traffic controller staffing needs are suitable for developing initial estimates of the number of controllers required at terminal areas and airport towers, but the models used for the centers controlling aircraft en route between airports can be improved. In addition, as a matter of priority, the FAA should collaborate with the National Air Traffic Controllers Association to develop and implement an enhanced tool for all facilities that is capable of creating efficient controller work schedules that incorporate fatigue mitigation strategies. The report recommends that the FAA analyze a wide range of data, such as accident and incident reports and voluntary reports by controllers, to identify relationships between staffing and safety. In addition, the controller workforce should be involved in staffing decisions, particularly as knowledge emerges about relevant safety issues. The FAA also should ensure that staffing continues to be appropriate as it implements the new air traffic operations environment associated with the Next Generation Transportation System, a modernization initiative to shift air traffic management from ground-based radar to a satellite system, the report says. A press release on the report is available for download. A report summary has been published in TR News 297.

"TRB Special Report 314, The Federal Aviation Administration's Approach for Determining Future Air Traffic Controller Staffing Needs, examines the methods used by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to estimate how many controllers are needed to staff its air traffic control facilities and FAA's processes for using these estimates to properly distribute controllers across facilities. According to the report, FAA's models for determining air traffic controller staffing needs are suitable for developing initial estimates of the number of controllers required at terminal areas and airport towers, but the models used for the centers controlling aircraft en route between airports can be improved. In addition, as a matter of priority, the FAA should collaborate with the National Air Traffic Controllers Association to develop and implement an enhanced tool for all facilities that is capable of creating efficient controller work schedules that incorporate fatigue mitigation strategies. The report recommends that the FAA analyze a wide range of data, such as accident and incident reports and voluntary reports by controllers, to identify relationships between staffing and safety. In addition, the controller workforce should be involved in staffing decisions, particularly as knowledge emerges about relevant safety issues. The report also says that FAA should ensure that staffing continue to be appropriate as FAA implements the new air traffic operations environment associated with the Next Generation Transportation System, a modernization initiative to shift air traffic management from ground-based radar to a satellite system"--Provided by publisher.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is responsible for managing the nation's air transportation system so more than 18,000 aircraft can annually carry 500 million passengers safely and on schedule. Because of significant hiring in the early 1980s to replace strikers who had been fired, many of FAAs more than 17,000 air traffic controllers may become eligible to retire within the next decade, raising concerns that the FAA could be left with too few fully trained controllers. This report discusses the results of a review of the FAAs efforts to address short- and long-term controller staffing needs. Charts and tables.

Issues of personnel development in air traffic control (ATC) have become a major topic in aviation recruitment and training. Proper selection and training methods are needed in order to reach a high level of efficiency and reliability in ATC. Pilots were considered the most prominent group in aviation for a long time, but with the development of flight guidance technologies came a second operational occupation in aviation: the air traffic controller (ATCO). This volume provides a state-of-the-art overview of controller selection from an impressive collection of international specialists in research and practice. It will prove a valuable and key insight into the demands of air traffic controller selection through its comprehensive and enlightening examination of the current practice in the USA and Europe for the job-analysis requirements of future air traffic management (ATM) systems.