LEILA FADEL, HOST:
Recent passenger jet crashes in New York and Washington, D.C., focused attention on the shortage of air traffic controllers. Now the Federal Aviation Administration says it can keep the nation's airspace safe with fewer controllers - 2,000 fewer. Not everyone is convinced, as NPR's Joel Rose reports.
JOEL ROSE, BYLINE: At a hearing on Capitol Hill yesterday, FAA administrator Bryan Bedford said the agency has a record number of air traffic control trainees in the pipeline. But Bedford said that still won't be enough.
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BRYAN BEDFORD: Even over the next three years, we're surging staffing. We are not going to get to the level of controller staffing that we deem is appropriate. So we need to reduce the strain and the workload on our controllers so that they can safely manage traffic demands.
ROSE: Everyone agrees the FAA is thousands of controllers short of full staffing, but the exact number is very much in dispute. Last year, the FAA said it needed more than 14,600 certified air traffic controllers. In a report released on Friday, the agency cut its staffing target by more than 2,000. Democratic Senator Tammy Duckworth of Illinois, a former Army helicopter pilot, challenged Bedford on that during the hearing.
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TAMMY DUCKWORTH: That's still over 2,000 positions that you're saying you don't need to fill. This is deeply troubling.
BEDFORD: That's an inaccurate categorization, Senator, and you know that.
ROSE: Bedford defended the workforce report, which is based on recommendations from the National Academy of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, and he said data analytics tools that rely on artificial intelligence could lighten demands on controllers.
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BEDFORD: We can do a better job of managing air traffic strategically versus tactically, which will again reduce controller workload.
ROSE: Senator Duckworth was skeptical. She said the FAA needs to do more to improve safety in the wake of the midair collision between an Army Black Hawk helicopter and a passenger jet near Washington, D.C., that killed 67 people last year.
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DUCKWORTH: The FAA's actions since the crash have given me no confidence that you will focus on the most important aspect of air traffic control system - its people. I know that enough well-rested, well-qualified air traffic controllers are what we need to keep the national air traffic system safe.
ROSE: The FAA's workforce plan is part of a long-simmering dispute over controller staffing levels between the agency and the union that represents controllers. That union blasted the new report, saying it's based on a flawed staffing model that is, quote, "the root cause of the staffing crisis we now face."
Joel Rose, NPR News, Washington.
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