And Another Thing

When I was researching the previous post, I stumbled onto this article in The New York Times from April, 2001:

Growing Old at Air Traffic Control

Pay particular attention to this part and see just how wrong the FAA was.

F.A.A. officials scoff at the idea of a looming controller shortage, asserting that many controllers enjoy the work and will put off retirement for as long as they can.

''We know from history, two-thirds of the controllers do not retire in the first seven years of eligibility,'' said Steven J. Brown, associate administrator for air traffic services for the agency.

The pay is good and the controllers typically have mortgages to pay off or college tuition bills for their children, Mr. Brown said. Senior controllers often earn far more than $100,000 a year, and they have their choice of shifts and vacation time.

There’s a reason The New York Times is known as the nation’s “newspaper of record.”

Here’s something else for the record -- from a NATCA press release on 5-28-08.

”Forced to suffer under the FAA’s imposed work rules since September 2006, twenty controllers have retired from Indianapolis Center in the past two and a half years and not a single retirement was mandatory. “

(Emphasis added)

Or try this one, from NATCA’s testimony at the recent Congressional hearings on controller staffing.

”Nearly 98 percent of retirees since the beginning of FY 2007 left before reaching the mandatory retirement age of 56 and 44 percent of FY 2007 retirees left within their first year of eligibility. “

(Emphasis added)

Think about how different things could have been if the FAA (or Congress, or the Administration, or the Public) had listened to NATCA while we still had time to address the coming controller shortage.

Don Brown
June 26, 2008