Efforts by Chicago airports to address air traffic controller staffing shortage following fatal DCA crash

Recently, there has been a sharp focus on the nation’s airline systems due to two significant air disasters occurring within a short timeframe. Particularly, concerns have arisen regarding air traffic controller staffing shortages across the country.

One of the busiest airports, O’Hare International (ORD), situated in Chicago, sees planes taking off and landing every minute, as per the latest air operation data provided by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).

The intricate dance of planes in the sky is expertly managed by certified air traffic controllers whose voices guide pilots and ground crews through each movement.

Air traffic control staffing standards and targets were set last year by a collaborative group, which included members of the FAA and the National Air Traffic Controllers Association (NATCA), the union representing air traffic control employees, formally called certified professional controllers.

Congress passed the FAA reauthorization bill last year to assist airports across the nation in meeting those air traffic control staffing goals.

Data prepared by that collaborative group and reviewed by the I-Team shows a total of 57 certified professional controllers staffing the towers at O’Hare International Airport.

The staffing target for the airport is 73, leaving the high traffic tower 16 people short of what the FAA and NATCA union say it should be.

At Chicago’s much smaller Midway International Airport (MDW), air traffic control is manned by a staff of 19, just three people short of the 22 certified professional controller target.

And for the whole of Chicago’s Air Route Traffic Control Center (ARTCC), which handles en route air travel and smaller airports in four neighboring states, air traffic controllers are functioning with 57 fewer controllers than the FAA and union are aiming for in the years to come.

President Donald Trump, in part, blamed air traffic control for last week’s deadly mid-air collision in Washington, D.C.

“We should have had the proper control,” President Trump said at Thursday’s Prayer Breakfast. “We should have had better equipment. We don’t, we have obsolete equipment. They were understaffed for whatever reason.”

The NATCA has been sounding alarms on staffing shortages for years.

Multiple requests for interviews by the I-Team during the past week have not materialized.

Air traffic control staff is more than 4,000 controllers short of what it should be nationwide, the collaborative group’s data shows.

Congress approved a plan for hiring and training more controllers last year, but training and certifying new controllers can take anywhere from two to five years, experts told the I-Team.

Mike Julius was an air traffic controller at Midway Airport for years, and now he’s training the next generation of controllers at Lewis University in Romeoville.

“Anytime you can bring on new controllers and alleviate as far as the short staff, that’s huge,” Julius told the I-Team.

“When you work a short staff, that usually means you work longer hours on position and shorter breaks,” Julius explained. “As you can imagine, the type of job that we have [can] lead to a little bit of fatigue.”

As of September 2023, the collaborative group’s report show 985 certified professional controllers are in training nationwide.

Julius says even a single controller missing on a team can make a big difference.

“It’ll be a huge difference,” Julius said. “Just 10 extra controllers, it can change not just the staffing, but the days off. You get vacations, time that you can spend with your family.”