FAA Cuts 2,000 from Certified Controller Goal in 2026 Plan

While emphasizing the strains on the existing air traffic control (ATC) workforce, the FAA’s 2026 Air Traffic Controller Workforce Plan cuts the certified professional controller (CPC) staffing target by 2,000 positions. Plans call to continue to ramp up on controller hiring, but the latest plan suggests a necessary full CPC target of 12,563, down from the 14,633 target in the 2025 plan.

To achieve that goal, the FAA is continuing its aggressive plans to hire 2,200 new potential controllers in fiscal year (FY) 2026, 2,300 in 2027, and 2,400 in 2028. The agency noted that it has reached 60% of this year’s hiring target, which is an increase from the 2,026 hired in FY 2025.

In FY 2026, the controller workforce counts 10,968 CPCs, but the entire controller workforce numbers 15,000 when including controllers in training (CPC-IT), as well as students at the FAA Academy and others in development. The 2028 plan would have the CPCs at 11,312, but an entire workforce of 16,425 when including the pipeline. This takes into account retirements and other attrition.

As for the plan, the agency maintained that the “bold, new air traffic workforce plan…will erase the longstanding staffage shortage, prepare for future demand, and ensure the long-term safety and operational efficiency of the National Airspace System (NAS).”

Revised targets were based on forecast demand and findings of the Transportation Research Board (TRB) that reviewed existing staffing models and methodologies, according to the FAA. “Deploying modern staffing models and scheduling tools will improve controller staffing efficiency and reduce the need for excessive overtime, which can lead to fatigue and burnout.”

This includes factors such as acknowledging the contribution that the “controller equivalent workforce,” or CEW, adds to the entire strength of the workforce. The agency said this was a recommendation of the TRB. “This metric recognizes that developmental controllers and CPC-ITs contribute to operations while they complete training, although they do not yet perform at the level of fully certified controllers,” the FAA added, noting that it factored in equivalence ratios into its staffing requirements.

The updated plan also looks at anticipated efficiencies from a data-driven controller-staffing model that more accurately assesses the time controllers are available for operational duties, use of more modern scheduling tools, reviews of individual facility hours and scheduling to better match peak demands, and efforts to resolve bottlenecks in hiring, training, and operations.

Also emphasized in the plan is continued hiring, airspace optimization, expanded advanced simulator-based training for controllers, use of AI and machine learning to better simulate and manage NAS performance with improved routing and traffic flow, and use of digital tower technologies.

Other plans are to improve the assignment process for academy graduates to focus on facilities with the greatest staffing needs and provide targeted training for the most successful academy graduates so that they can be assigned to facilities with more complex traffic.