US Transport Secretary Sean Duffy said on February 18, 2025, that the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has let go fewer than 400 employees from its workforce of 45,000.
Duffy made the comments in response to a post on X (Twitter) made by former Transport Secretary Pete Buttigieg, who has been critical of the Trump administration's transportation department.
“The FAA alone has a staggering 45,000 employees," Duffy read in his post. “Less than 400 were let go, and they were all probationary, meaning they had been hired less than a year ago. Zero air traffic controllers and critical safety personnel were let go.”
This statement follows an announcement from the Professional Aviation Safety Specialists union on February 15, stating that several hundred employees from the FAA had been impacted.
Senator Maria Cantwell, ranking member of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation and senior member of the Senate Finance Committee, stated: “Now is not the time to fire technicians who fix and operate more than 74,000 safety-critical pieces of equipment like radars, navigational aids, and communications technology.
"The FAA is already short 800 technicians and these firings inject unnecessary risk into the airspace — in the aftermath of four deadly crashes in the last month. The FAA’s safety workforce needs to be a priority for this administration.”
Duffy also confirmed that he plans to upgrade the country’s “outdated” air traffic control systems.