The Trump administration is turning to teenage computer gamers in a bid to plug the gap in air traffic control staffing shortages, saying that Americans who regularly play video games have some of the natural attributes to become air traffic controllers.
“To reach the next generation of air traffic controllers, we need to adapt,” commented Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy as he announced a new ATC hiring surge that will target young Americans into video games.
“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,” Duffy added.
The Department of Transportation and Federal Aviation Administration came up with the idea for the campaign after exit interviews with controllers leaving the profession pointed to video gaming as having an influence on their ability to “think quickly, stay focused, and manage complexity.”
With an estimated 200 million Americans regularly playing video games, and no traditional college degree required to become an air traffic controller, the Trump administration believes it can tap into a huge pool of candidates.
The U.S. air traffic control service has been chronically understaffed for years, although the issue isn’t necessarily trying to find the right candidate to fill all of the open positions.
In 2024, for example, the then-Biden administration announced it had little problem in meeting its quota for hiring new air traffic controllers. When the Biden administration faced issues, along with prior administrations, was running enough training courses to close the gap.
Last year, the FAA said it needed around 13,000 active air traffic controllers, but the service was running with only around 10,000. At the time, the FAA only had the capacity to train a maximum of 1,800 new air traffic controllers per year.
Coupled with a high washout rate of new recruits and a mandatory retirement age of 56 years old, which keeps attrition rates above average, the number of new recruits entering the service simply isn’t enough.
By the end of 2024, the FAA managed to bolster its total ATC workforce by just 36 controllers after accounting for retirements and resignations.
Since taking office, the Trump administration has placed a focus on closing the ATC staffing shortfall. Within a year of being in office, President Trump now oversees a workforce of 11,000 air traffic controllers – a solid improvement, but still 2,000 short of the FAA’s target.
In order to close the gap, the FAA has slashed five months from the lengthy hiring process and increased the annual number of recruits that can be trained up to 2,400.
The new hiring campaign for 2026 will open at midnight on April 17 and will close as soon as the FAA receives 8,000 applications.
