‘One of the highest-stress occupations’: Why $148,000 median pay can’t fix the air traffic controller shortage
The median American air traffic controller earned $148,080 a year, or $71.19 an hour, as of May 2025, according to the BLS, and the top 10% earned more than $215,610.
Key points
- has about 6% fewer air traffic controllers than it did a decade ago, even as the number of flights relying on the air traffic control system has grown 10%, according to a January analysis from the U.S.
- The FAA hired 2,235 controller trainees in fiscal 2026, the most in its history, and its 2026-2028 workforce plan puts the certified workforce at about 11,000 as of April, against a target of….
- Aviation training company CAE projects that 71,000 new air traffic controllers will be needed worldwide by 2034, or roughly 7,000 a year.
“It’s one of the highest stress occupations out there,” says Tiffany Bisbey, an assistant professor of industrial/organizational psychology at George Washington University.
The 2025 shutdown made things worse: by November of that year, the FAA said nearly half of major air traffic control facilities were short-staffed as controllers worked without pay.
Additional details
- The country that trains a controller usually bears the full cost of that training, even if the controller later leaves, a spokesperson for the industry group CANSO told the news service.
- The FAA requires a bachelor’s degree, one year of progressively responsible work experience, or a combination of the two, and new hires then spend more than a year training on the job.
- When the FAA pitched the job to Gen Z video gamers this spring, it advertised pay of at least $155,000 after three years.
- Countries from Australia to Qatar now compete for the same small pool of certified controllers, recruiting across borders with work visas and pay pegged to experience.
- The Bureau of Labor Statistics describes the work environment this way: “Their work can be stressful because maximum concentration is required at all times.
How this summary was made: extractive summary — built from the sources' own reporting. It is drawn only from the reporting of the sources listed below — read the originals for full detail. How we summarize →
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