US Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy has introduced a number of new initiatives to address an ongoing shortage of air traffic controllers, focusing on hiring new staff and keeping experienced controllers in their roles.
Duffy aims to accelerate recruitment, streamline hiring processes, and offer retention bonuses to prevent early retirements. The plan builds on a "supercharged" hiring effort launched in March, which has already led to faster candidate onboarding and a 30% pay boost for trainees.
"In just 100 days, we've made more progress than the previous administration did in four years," said the Transportation Secretary. "These new actions will help rebuild our controller workforce and ensure safer, more reliable air travel."
Key initiatives include retention incentives for certified controllers nearing retirement, including a lump-sum payment of 20% of annual base pay for each additional year worked and a hiring bonus of up to $10,000 for graduates assigned to hard-to-staff facilities and $5,000 for completing initial training.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said it is on track to hire at least 2,000 new controllers in 2025.
In March a US House of Representatives subcommittee heard from a panel of witnesses about a need to invest in modernising and adequately staffing the US air traffic control (ATC) system.
Both US President Donald Trump and Secretary Duffy have backed new investments in ATC facilities, technologies and hiring. This came after a spate of aviation incidents in the US which put the current ATC system under scrutiny, most notably after An American Airlines jet crashed into the Potomac River near Reagan National Airport outside of Washington, DC, after colliding with a US Army Black Hawk helicopter on January 29, 2025, causing 67 fatalities.
Secretary Duffy emphasised that this staffing push marks a critical step toward reversing decades of staffing declines and modernising the national airspace system.