Airline executives raise alarm that air traffic controller shortage will continue disrupting flights for years

Tuesday.

The flight system is “suffering” they said, citing the 3,000-person controller shortage that Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg revealed in a CNN interview earlier this year.

”It will take five to seven years [of hiring] to break even if all goes well,” Airlines for America chief Nick Calio said at the Global Aerospace Summit held by the US Chamber of Commerce in Washington, DC. “Do we need five to seven years of further disruption on a daily basis? I don’t think so.”

Calio, whose organization represents the major airlines, said even if the Federal Aviation Administration hired the maximum number of controllers who can progress through its single certification academy, it is “not going to be enough” for a rapid recovery.

He proposed allowing universities with air traffic controller programs to provide the certification courses, as he said other countries do.

He said major US airlines would also encourage the Federal Aviation Administration to lower flight levels at major New York-area airports – the region where the FAA is most severely understaffed – again next summer.

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In the spring, the FAA asked airlines to dial back summer flights by 10% at airports such as Newark, John F. Kennedy and LaGuardia. Last month, the FAA extended the policy into October.