For more than a decade, the agency responsible for keeping American skies safe has openly admitted it does not have enough controllers to do the job at full strength. This year, instead of closing that gap, the FAA quietly lowered the target instead.
In May, the agency released its 2026 to 2028 workforce plan, revising the number of Certified Professional Controllers it says the country needs down to 12,563, a reduction of roughly 2,000 from the 14,633 figure it had forecast just two years earlier. FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford said “modern staffing models and scheduling tools” would allow the agency to run safely with fewer people than previously believed necessary.
How Bad the Shortage Actually Is
The most recent detailed federal data, covering 2023, showed the country’s control towers and approach facilities had 7,047 certified controllers on staff, nearly 2,000 short of the goal both the FAA and the controllers’ union had agreed on. Only 23 of the FAA’s 313 facilities nationwide met or exceeded their staffing target.
Some of the country’s busiest airspace has fared far worse than the national average. New York’s Terminal Radar Approach Control facility, which manages traffic feeding into JFK, LaGuardia and Newark, was staffed at only 54 percent of target levels. Miami’s tower sat at 66 percent, while towers in Philadelphia, Orlando, Austin, Albuquerque and Milwaukee were all below 60 percent. In Las Vegas, the radar approach facility had 37 controllers against a 2026 target of 46, with 10 more departures expected within three years through retirement and attrition.
The Human Cost of Running Understaffed
Understaffing does not just mean occasional delays. Congressional testimony has described controllers routinely working six-day weeks and ten-hour shifts for years at a time, and mandatory overtime has become a standard tool for filling schedule gaps rather than an occasional emergency measure.
United Airlines has stated publicly that 68 percent of its 2024 delays on days with completely clear weather were tied directly to air traffic control staffing limits, not weather, mechanical issues or anything else within the airline’s own control.
The shortage has also become part of the national conversation on aviation safety following the January 2025 collision between an Army helicopter and an American Airlines regional jet near Reagan Washington National Airport, which killed 67 people, and a separate fatal runway collision at LaGuardia Airport in March 2026 that killed both pilots of an Air Canada Express flight. Investigators have not concluded that staffing shortages directly caused either incident, but both renewed scrutiny of how thin the system is stretched.
The Plan to Fix It, and Why It Will Take Years
The FAA says it intends to hire roughly 15,000 new controllers over the next decade, with 2,200 targeted this year, 2,300 in 2027 and 2,400 in 2028. The obstacle is time. Training a new controller to full certification typically takes two to three years, meaning today’s hiring numbers will not meaningfully close the gap at the busiest facilities for several more years, regardless of how successful recruitment proves to be.
What This Means When Booking a Flight
Understaffed control facilities are one of the biggest hidden drivers of chronic, weather-independent delays, particularly around New York, South Florida and the Southwest.
Favor morning departures over evening ones on routes through chronically understaffed hubs, since delays compound as controllers work through backlogs over the course of the day.
Build in longer connection windows at New York, Miami, Austin and Las Vegas than the airline’s minimum recommended time, especially during peak summer and holiday periods.
Treat “no weather delay” schedules with some caution on routes through these specific facilities, since a clear sky is no guarantee of an on-time departure when the underlying cause is staffing rather than storms.
This article draws on data from the FAA’s 2026 Air Traffic Controller Workforce Plan and reporting from Axios and TravelPulse.
Amanda O’Brien is the creator and editor of The Boutique Adventurer. She has visited 80 countries and is a member of the British Guild of Travel Writers as well as the IFTWTA. She is passionate about wine had has just completed Level 3 of the WSET. Born in Australia, she lives in London.