“It’s not a game. It’s a career.”
That’s how the FAA—in a flashy new video posted Friday—is pitching to avid gamers to place their twitchy fingers to make use of within the management tower in its newest air site visitors management (ATC) hiring push, because it seems to handle a persistent scarcity of hundreds of personnel.
“To reach the next generation of air traffic controllers, we need to adapt,” U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy stated in a statement Friday. “This campaign’s innovative communication style and focus on gaming taps into a growing demographic of young adults who have many of the hard skills it takes to be a successful controller.”
The FAA beforehand recruited gamers to handle the ATC scarcity in 2021. Five years later, it persists regardless of the company taking quite a few steps to fill its ranks.
The FAA hit its hiring goal of two,000 controllers in 2025 by streamlining the hiring course of, awarding money bonuses and including new colleges to air site visitors collegiate coaching initiative (AT-CTI) and Enhanced AT-CTI applications. On Friday, it stated there are virtually 11,000 controllers in service and one other 4,000 within the coaching pipeline.
But according to Nick Daniels, president of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association (NATCA), that’s nonetheless greater than 3,500 in need of the roughly 14,600 controllers referred to as for within the FAA’s staffing plans.
“Our union welcomes innovative approaches to expanding the candidate pool—including outreach to individuals with high-level aptitude skills such as gamers—so long as all pathways maintain the rigorous standards required of this safety-critical profession,” Daniels stated in an announcement shared with FLYING. “NATCA stands ready to continue working with DOT and FAA leadership to accelerate hiring, enhance training success, and ensure the next generation of controllers is prepared to meet the demands of an evolving aviation system.”
Per a staffing blueprint the FAA printed in August, there have been 11,686 licensed skilled controllers (CPCs), who’ve moved from coaching to the sphere, and CPCs in coaching (CPC-ITs)—CPCs studying the ropes at a brand new facility after working professionally elsewhere—in fiscal yr 2024 (FY24).
Per that steering, the FAA goals to onboard 2,200 ATCs in FY26. On Friday, it stated it’s practically midway to that purpose. The White House’s FY27 price range request requires a $481 million improve to the FAA’s operations account, together with $95.4 million to hire 2,300 trainees—additionally in step with the August blueprint.
By the top of fiscal yr 2028, the FAA goals to recruit 8,900 new ATCs. But it additionally expects to lose about 6,800, that means it is going to internet nearer to 2,000 throughout that interval. Of these, solely about half can be CPCs and CPC-ITs, that means the remainder can be trainees on the FAA Academy in Oklahoma City or graduates assigned to coach at a facility.
How Gamers Can Become ATCs
The FAA on Friday estimated that 200 million Americans—or about 65 % of the inhabitants—frequently play video video games.
It stated that controllers in exit interviews have cited video video games as helpful to their cognitive functioning, multitasking capability, and capability to remain targeted, suppose shortly, and resolve issues on the fly. According to the company, solely 25 % of ATCs maintain conventional school levels.
FAA officers, who spoke to The New York Times beneath situation of anonymity, stated that out of 250 FAA Academy graduates surveyed by President Donald Trump’s incoming administration in 2024, solely two weren’t avid gamers. Experts interviewed by the Times had been divided on whether or not the atypical recruitment technique pays dividends.
The software window for avid gamers and anybody else who meets the {qualifications} to be a controller—which embrace being beneath the age of 31 and proficient in English—is scheduled to open at midnight on April 17. It will shut when the FAA receives 8,000 candidates, or on April 27 if that threshold shouldn’t be met.
In-person and digital help sessions with FAA specialists will information candidates by way of the method.
Selected candidates can be employed as entry stage FG-3 personnel and head to the FAA Academy for coaching, making $22.61 an hour to start out. Based on historic precedent, about 30 % are prone to fail or burn out.
Graduates would choose from a listing of services with the best staffing wants and will make anyplace from $47,026 to $177,543 of their first yr of on-site coaching. Some will likely be eligible for one-time, $10,000 commencement incentives.
Pay will improve with every part of facility coaching, which generally takes 2-3 years. Per the FAA’s job posting, CPCs made $158,000 on common in 2025.
Gamers’ dexterity and spatial consciousness could possibly be useful within the management tower. But these abilities alone received’t put together them for one of the vital aggravating jobs on the planet.
According to Daniels, the NATCA president, because of shortages, controllers typically work 10 hours a day, six days per week. Often, they’re required to deal with a number of positions because of absences. Controllers labored weeks with out pay throughout the federal government shutdown in late 2025. Many referred to as out sick or took on second jobs, comparable to driving for Uber or DoorDash, as they struggled to afford meals, fuel, day care, and even lifesaving medication.
ATCs additionally depend on antiquated know-how that has precipitated communications and radar blackouts. The FAA along with its hiring surge is enterprise a three-year, $30 billion-plus effort to improve hundreds of ATC radios, radars, voice switches, and different methods. So far, it has solely obtained $12.5 billion from Congress, although the White House’s FY27 price range request contains $4 billion earmarked for ATC “facilities and equipment” upgrades.