FAA's air traffic control issues are far from over, warns former exec

Lack of funding and ancient tech have left the FAA scrambling to fix a controller shortage.

Transcript

00:00The FAA has struggled for at least 20 years with inadequate funding. It also has

00:08a controller hiring process that is suboptimal, that is unable to hire the needed level of

00:17controllers and to complete their training, which takes in some cases three years after they complete

00:24their time at the FAA Academy. Again, this is in part the result of their using outdated technology.

00:33If you looked at any airline today, they do their principal pilot training with high-fidelity

00:40simulators. The FAA does not have modern high-fidelity simulators to train most of its

00:46controllers, so even the training that it does of the controllers that it hires is slow. That's the

00:53second problem. And then the third problem, again to coming back to leadership, is we need leaders

01:00who are bold and willing to take advantage of the special statutory authorities that the FAA has in

01:08order to get things done faster and more comprehensively.