How do you fix a shortage in air traffic controllers and restore trust in the safety of the country’s aviation industry? By hiring video game addicts, of course.
On Sunday, transportation secretary Sean Duffy announced that the department had hired thousands of new air traffic controllers thanks to his campaign to “recruit video gamers as air traffic controllers.”
“We’re building the strongest, sharpest workforce in aviation history,” he declared.
This genius strategy is, in Duffy’s opinion, a “GAME CHANGER.” He claimed that the department has now met 94 percent of its hiring goals after bringing in more than 2,000 new employees — the “best and brightest,” he says — which was the “most in a single year.”
And there’s 2,000 more candidates behind them, Duffy added, “reaching the Academy quicker than any class before them, thanks to the most streamlined hiring process.”
When Duffy announced the plan in April he reasoned that some air traffic controllers said gaming helped them “think quickly, stay focused, and manage complexity.”
There’s nothing inherently wrong with hiring gamers, but it’s a somewhat glib message to be sending after a shortage in air traffic controllers has caused a crisis of faith in the aviation industry. President Trump helped kick that off by gutting the industry’s regulators and firing hundreds of employees from the Federal Aviation Administration in an anti-woke, anti-DEI purge. To make up for the chronic understaffing, controllers have been forced to work grueling overtime shifts, and last October worked for over a month without pay amid a government shutdown. The FAA has also had to delay and cancel flights because it didn’t have enough controllers available.
The new recruits will help, but it’s too early to declare victory. It takes years to train new controllers, with the vast majority dropping out before they finish, according to the Government Accountability Office.
It’s well worth asking if Duffy’s “streamlined hiring process” is rigorous enough, too. By the FAA’s own historic estimate, less than 10 percent of applicants are accepted into its training program. Meanwhile, in keeping with a Trump administration motif, Duffy has been obsessed with integrating AI, including adding the tech into the air traffic management system.
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