Tuesday, December 14, 2010

Meeting the Challenge of Air Traffic Control Staffing

The FAA must match the number of controllers to the correct facility depending on traffic volume and workload. How can the FAA best meet this challenge?

If the FAA’s drive to transition the air traffic control system from one of control to more of a management model is accomplished, this alone should assist them in filling the ranks of what is known informally as one of THE most stressful jobs to be had. Due to the stress level of some of the Centers, there is an imposed age limit on new hires. If the stress can be reduced though a management model, perhaps that artificial limit could be raised, opening up a larger pool of candidates.
Automation will play a central role in this transition. The old guard who were not raised on technology the way today’s young people have been, have an innate fear of technology; fear of it failing for whatever reason.

Fear has been a factor in any number of transitions from older methods to newer; recall buggy whip makers’ aversion to the newfangled automobiles of the early 20th century. Although they were right in the early days—auto travel was only for a very few, and was fraught with dangers and unknowns not faced by the horse-and-buggy crowd. That eventually changed with more reliability derived from improvement of vehicles. The same is true for newfangled computers and equipment being developed within the Nextgen framework.

Communicating to prospective employees for air traffic control the efforts being undertaken in modernizing the air traffic control system is a must if new talent is to be attracted. I don’t think money in itself is a motivator. The reporter even commented on that concerning the facility in Westbury that even with a $100,000 signing bonus, there were few takers. The promise of exciting work with modern equipment that is able to maintain its currency, but the stress historically associated with the job removed or reduced, may be the better attractant.

One thing for sure, the FAA can no longer depend on people flocking to the controller job market simply because it’s in the exciting field of aviation. Anecdotally, I would relate the condition of dress of the flying public today as compared to pre-deregulation days as partial proof that this is no longer the case. Aviation itself no longer holds the exotic draw it once had. Drawing on today’s penchant for high-technology video gaming that is very popular with this day’s generation is how the FAA, along with other industry segments, must attract workers. Younger workers don’t have memory of a world without gaming, iPods, instant networking, etc., and generally have no desire for “horse-and-buggy” ancient technology—there’s not enough time to wait for that old stuff. Let’s go! So, the FAA has to continue its modernization, the public at large needs to remain in the loop on the upgrades and their advantages, and the money required to keep those advantages; all this requires communication.

Followers