Rocheleau: FAA Notches ATC Hiring Successes, Looks Broader

The FAA’s campaign to lure gamers into the field of air traffic control was so successful that agency officials worried briefly that the overwhelming number of immediate applications would shut the portal down, FAA Deputy Administrator Chris Rocheleau told attendees last week at the NATA Air Charter Forum. As part of its drive to recruit new controllers, the FAA opened an application window for less than a day in late April after marketing to the gaming community.

“Within 24 hours, we had 11,000 people apply to be air traffic controllers,” Rocheleau said. “There was a moment where we were wondering, is the system going to keep up to manage this? Is it going to crash? That outreach turned out to be so positive, and we have more than 8,000 people who have already qualified and are going through that process, a process that last year we truncated by just over five months.”

He reiterated that the FAA is putting controllers through the vetting and training process as quickly as possible and making sure, as seats open up, that there is a pipeline in the wings to fill those seats.

However, Rocheleau, who provided Air Charter Forum attendees with an overview of a range of agency activities, stressed that the FAA is looking more broadly at hiring. “We haven’t stopped hiring aerospace engineers, flight standards inspectors, airport safety experts,” he said. “Those are the people we will continue to look for to bolster our safety approach when we think about the agency and the industry and where it’s going.”

An attendee asked about hiring principal operations inspectors (POIs), noting that he is hearing anecdotes that some operators do not have a designated POI, and said that is slowing approvals down through the local Flight Standards District Offices. He added that these operators are being told that there just aren’t resources.

“You should never be hearing from a [FSDO] manager that ‘It’s too bad,’” Rocheleau said, advising operators to elevate those concerns within the FAA—politely. He noted that the agency will experience turnover that could produce temporary gaps. “But what I’m most concerned about is when we have a problem that has been lingering [and] we’re not getting ahead of that, we’re not fixing that. ”

He said he could discuss those issues further, but also noted he has received full support from the administration whenever he needed something to help the agency.

Beyond addressing the people aspect, Rocheleau covered the safety focus, reminding attendees, “We learned a lot from the KDCA [Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport] tragedy, and we put a lot of things in place, subsequent to that incident. ”

FAA officials immediately explored what they missed that they could have taken action on in advance. “One of the things we learned early on was the amount of safety data that we get and the analysts that have to go through that data [to] figure out what actions we need to take in a proactive manner,” he said. As a result, “we really embraced artificial intelligence and machine learning, and that really has propelled us in our ability to identify what we call hotspots or safety risk areas.”

This enables the agency to proactively put mitigations in place, he said. He cited as an example the move to lower the number of operations at key airports during the government shutdown last October and November. “That was a difficult choice to make, but the data told us, and the safety experts brought it to the [FAA] Administrator.”

Rocheleau also pointed to a general notice issued a few months ago to change the handling of mixed helicopter and airplane traffic in arrival and departure paths. Another example involved the recent reorganization of the agency to break down safety silos. “We saw what I like to refer to as these cylinders of excellence within the agency. They were doing their own safety thing and not always networking that,” he said. The realignment was designed to ensure safety officials were talking “in a more timely manner.”

As far as the May 28, 2027 deadline for Part 135 safety management systems, Rocheleau expressed optimism that this was “going really well.” He said a few aspects are propelling that. “We have the right people working to help people get to that objective, and we do get positive feedback.” This feedback goes beyond agency activities to operators working with other operators and sharing information.

“Where it really comes down to, though, is how are we helping people understand the importance of cultural change,” he further stated. “We feel very good about where we’re going with respect to the deadline itself. We think people are getting on board; people understand.”

But the FAA is sensitive to ensuring these programs are actively used and “not turning this into a three-ring binder that sits on a shelf.”

As far as staffing needs to prepare as the deadline approaches, he said, occasionally, he hears about the need for additional resources. “That’s why we have town halls with our folks to make sure that there’s an open dialogue going on about the needs, about the prioritization, because if it’s a safety issue, we want to be all over that.”

Rocheleau further updated on air traffic control modernization, saying the agency has been “working very hard, very diligently to, in fact, use the $12.5 billion that Congress has given us.” The FAA is now 53% complete in its changeover from copper wire.

Pointing to contracts for 612 radars, he said, “We’re already employing those. Every week, we’re putting new radars in place.” Further, the FAA is buying digital radios to move away from the analog systems. “We're making tremendous progress as it relates to the brand-new air traffic control system.”

However, that is only half of the efforts. The second half, to move to a new cloud-based system that involves a common automation platform, is contingent on funding. To convince Congress of that funding need, the agency must prove to be good stewards of the original $12.5 billion, he said.

In tandem with the equipment updates, the agency is working with airlines to optimize strategic management of the airspace to optimize departures, arrivals, and routings. Calling this effort a trial, Rocheleau said the agency has focused on areas that would have the most impact. “It’s a prioritization drill. So we’re working with the airlines right now to walk through what that strategic activity would look like.”

But he added that the second tranche would be business aviation, general aviation, and other activities, because the airspace will continue to get more crowded with more new entrants.