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Retirements, freeze on hiring is squeezing air traffic controllers

By Blanca Torres
Seattle Times business reporter

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Jack Fader, a Gig Harbor resident and president of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association local, said the situation is especially severe at the Seattle Air Route Traffic Control Center in Auburn, where more than half of the staff controllers could retire in five years.

"We have a very senior work force here in Seattle," said Fader, who works at the Auburn control center and has been a controller for more than 22 years. "Right now we are losing controllers about one a month and not replacing them."

The center is responsible for directing about 4,500 planes daily. It has lost about 11 controllers in the past nine months; a hiring freeze has meant it can't fill those vacancies.

The FAA understands the union's position, spokesman Allen Kenitzer said.

"Their concern for staffing is shared by the FAA, but we are addressing it," Kenitzer said.

Even though a significant portion of controllers would be able to retire by the end of the decade, the FAA expects only about 2 or 3 percent to do so as soon as they are eligible.

Five percent of controllers will reach mandatory retirement age of 56 by the end of the decade, the FAA says. The agency has asked Congress to increase the mandatory retirement age so controllers could work longer.

The Auburn control center is authorized to have 217 controllers, Fader said. It has 207, 179 of whom are fully certified. The rest are trainees or can work only in certain positions.

Seattle controllers are strained, Fader said, working lots of overtime and many six-day weeks.

"This is not a job where you can safely work people six days week after week," he said. "If we don't do anything now, we're going to be seriously in trouble four or five years down the road."
 
Air traffic controllers are eligible to retire after 20 years of service at 50 years of age, or after 25 years at any age.

Without enough controllers, the union says, commercial air travel would be limited and would lead to flight cancellations or delays, airport congestion and higher airfares.

The union hopes to persuade Congress to approve the $14 million as part of next year's Transportation, Treasury and Independent Agencies Appropriation Bill.

The House Appropriation Committee may vote as early as today. The Senate committee, on which Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., is a ranking member, is expected to vote in the next few weeks.

Union efforts are springing up elsewhere, including in cities like Las Vegas, Chicago and Philadelphia where staffing shortages are also a problem.

Meanwhile, the FAA says staffing is not putting anyone at risk. "Safety is not being compromised now or ever," Kenitzer said.

Blanca Torres: 206-515-5066 or btorres@seattletimes.com