The Biden administration’s Federal Aviation Administration is failing America’s air travelers in a massive way. Our skies are dangerously short-staffed with only 10,800 air traffic controllers working when we need 14,600. That’s nearly 4,000 missing controllers who should be keeping your family safe when you fly.
The training program is a complete disaster with 35 percent of new trainees quitting before they even finish. These government bureaucrats can’t figure out how to teach people a job that America desperately needs filled. Meanwhile, hardworking families face flight delays and cancellations because Washington can’t get its act together.
It takes over two years to fully train just one air traffic controller after they finish their basic schooling. Two whole years of additional training for people who already passed their initial courses. This ridiculous timeline shows exactly why government programs fail while private companies succeed.
The FAA is throwing taxpayer money at fancy new simulator technology at 95 facilities across the country. They claim these expensive gadgets will cut training time by 27 percent. But if the program was run properly from the start, we wouldn’t need to waste millions on high-tech fixes for basic government incompetence.
Controllers must manage multiple planes at once while talking on radios where one wrong word can cause disasters. The job requires split-second decisions and perfect communication skills. Yet somehow our government training system loses more than one in three recruits before they even graduate.
The agency is now trying to push training out to eight different colleges instead of centralizing it in Oklahoma City. This scattered approach will likely create more confusion and inconsistency in how controllers learn their vital skills. More government expansion is not the answer to government failure.
Air travelers are paying the price for this bureaucratic mess through delayed flights and stressed-out controllers. Your vacation plans and business trips suffer because federal agencies can’t handle basic workforce management. American families deserve better than this kind of government incompetence.
This crisis proves once again that big government programs create more problems than they solve. Private industry would never tolerate a 35 percent failure rate in training programs. It’s time to demand real accountability from the FAA and get our skies properly staffed with qualified controllers.
