Duffy Announces Major Move to Heal Air Travel

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy announced Thursday that the Trump administration is implementing an aggressive plan to “supercharge” air traffic controller staffing.

“This staffing shortage has been a known challenge for over a decade, and this administration is committed to solving it,” Duffy stated, emphasizing that the role requires “skill” and “rigor.”

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) will now boost starting salaries for air traffic controllers by 30% and reduce the hiring process from eight steps to five, which will cut more than four months off the current hiring timeline.

“The new streamlined hiring process is just the first step to deliver on President Trump’s agenda to prioritize the American people’s safety and modernize the federal government,” Duffy said.

Duffy also made waves Thursday by stating that pilots who disregard air traffic controllers should lose their licenses, a stance that underscores the administration’s commitment to improving safety.

His remarks follow a near-disaster at Chicago’s Midway International Airport, where a private plane ignored air traffic control instructions and nearly collided with a Southwest Airlines flight that was landing.

“A consequence-free space where you make errors, serious errors, and you don’t pay any kind of price for it—something’s wrong with that,” Duffy said. “And maybe this is the way we get pilots to start paying attention again and following the direction of air traffic controllers.”

Biden-Era Failures Left Air Travel in Crisis

Duffy’s announcement comes in the wake of a series of aviation accidents, including a deadly midair collision near Reagan Washington National Airport in January, a fatal medical plane crash in Philadelphia, and a missing aircraft discovered on sea ice in Alaska.

The National Air Traffic Controllers Association has long warned about dangerously low staffing levels but saw little meaningful action under the previous administration.

Union president Nick Daniels confirmed that the lengthy training process has been a major barrier to increasing the workforce.

“It takes two to three years to get a controller from being qualified conditionally just to enter the job, and there are multiple points where they can fail out,” Daniels said on CNN in February.