To keep up with air-traffic growth and avoid massive delays, the Federal Aviation Administration on Tuesday said it plans to hire 12,500 controllers during the next 10 years.
In that period, almost 11,000 of the nation's 14,816 controllers, or 73 percent, will be eligible to retire, including dozens from South Florida airports. Last year, only 13 new controllers were hired nationwide.
"It is clear that our current hiring policy is not good enough," said Juan Fuentes, assistant air-traffic manager at Miami International Airport's control tower.
The looming problem: Air travel at 13 of the nation's busiest airports already exceeds pre-Sept. 11, 2001, levels, and is forecast to continue growing sharply. More than 649 million passengers flew into U.S. airports last year.
Although its training academy in Oklahoma City can handle up to 2,000 controllers per year, the FAA intends to hire only 435 next year. From there, however, the plan takes off dramatically, Fuentes said.
In 2006, 1,249 are to be hired and then up to 2,000 per year though 2014. At that point, about 16,500 controllers should be employed, about 1,500 more than now.
While new controllers currently take up to five years to train, the FAA plans to reduce that time to two to three years by using high-tech simulators and improving the screening process, which includes intelligence and aptitude tests, as well as background checks.
Under its plan, submitted to Congress on Tuesday, the FAA would allow controllers who otherwise would be forced to retire at 56 to continue working on a year-to-year basis through age 61 if they are deemed "exceptional."
About 40 percent of controllers would meet this requirement, Fuentes said. The age-extension proposal would allow the agency to hang onto experienced personnel, sorely needed at the busiest airports.
The agency staffs 315 control towers and radar centers. Its plan could cost tens of millions over the next decade, although the FAA would provide no specific estimate.
Its budget for air-traffic operations was $6.2 billion in 2004. Yet the agency is in a financial crunch because much of its revenue comes from passenger ticket taxes, which have dropped sharply in the past four years because of discount airline fares.
John Carr, president of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association, said the FAA's plan would be too slow to prevent an air-traffic control crisis. The union maintains that thousands of new controllers already should have been hired.
In the past year alone, he said 500 controllers retired.
The FAA denied a crisis is in the making.
"This plan is our blueprint to put the right number of controllers in the right place at the right time," FAA Administrator Marion Blakey said.
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