Air traffic control staffing at U.S. airports is near a 30-year low, and billionaire oligarch Elon Musk has been doing his best to make sure it stays that way with the so-called Department of Government Efficiency. But Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy has an idea to fix it.
Duffy thinks air traffic controllers shouldn’t retire at 56 as they’re now required to do for safety and national security reasons. In fact, Duffy seems to think allowing air traffic controllers to work into old age would actually help safety and national security, if you can believe it.
“We have too many controllers that retire after 25 years of service. And so we have to look and go, is this a national security issue? Is this a safety issue? And should these air traffic controllers be retiring after 25 years of service?” Duffy said on Wednesday on Fox Business.
Duffy on the shortage of air traffic controllers: “We have too many controllers that retire after 25 years of service. And so we have to look and go, is this a national security issue? Is this a safety issue? And should these air traffic controllers be retiring after 25 years of service?”
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— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) April 16, 2025 at 8:37 AM
Air traffic controllers are required to retire by age 56 due to the stressful nature of the job, though some people can get waivers to work until 60 in rare instances. And while Secretary Duffy clearly thinks he’s found the solution to his problem of low staffing by raising the retirement age, the union representing air traffic controllers disagrees.
“The solution to the ATC staffing crisis is a long-term commitment to hiring and training and the retention of the experience of all the highly skilled, highly trained air traffic controllers,” the National Air Traffic Controllers Association told Flying magazine back in February when Duffy first floated this idea. “NATCA will continue to advocate for practical, effective solutions that ensure safety, protect the workforce, and restore stability to the system.”
Nick Daniels, president of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association, testified about the shortage last month to a congressional committee, emphasizing the tremendous stress these workers face every single day. And Daniels said modernization is desperately needed.
“These dedicated professionals continue to work short-staffed, often six days a week, ten hours a day for years at a time, using outdated equipment and in run-down facilities that are in many cases more than 60 years old and are long overdue to be modernized and/or replaced,” Daniels explained.
High-profile collisions and near-misses have put a spotlight on the danger of leaving these jobs vacant. Back in January, the U.S. saw its most deadly air collision in many years when a jet and a military helicopter collided in Washington, D.C., killing 67 people. And while a report on that crash hasn’t been released yet, one possible explanation has emerged. One air traffic controller was operating two different tower positions at the same time, according to CNN, forcing them to oversee both local and helicopter traffic simultaneously.
Roughly 90% of U.S. airport towers are understaffed, according to the FAA’s own data, and while there are reports that some of Musk’s cuts with DOGE at the FAA have been successfully reversed, there’s no telling what could happen as the billionaire oligarch continues rooting around the plumbing of the federal government.
“There is a shortage of top notch air traffic controllers. If you have retired, but are open to returning to work, please consider doing so,” Musk tweeted in February.
Duffy, who was a reality TV star before being elected a congressman in Wisconsin, was confirmed as Trump’s pick for his role in a bipartisan vote of 77-22, with 21 Senate Democrats voting to confirm him. And that perhaps speaks to the way that Democrats aren’t actually working to stop Trump’s agenda in any meaningful way as things fall apart and people like Duffy make the country less safe.
The Transportation Secretary knows he has a major issue with staffing at the FAA, but clearly doesn’t care what the union representing air traffic controllers has to say, given the fact that he raises this idea about retirement repeatedly. And this is the reality Americans will have to live with for the foreseeable future as we see more headlines about dangerous incidents at the country’s airports.
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