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The Department of Transportation has announced that it has initiated an audit of the air traffic controller training at the FAA Academy.
In February 2025, DOT Secretary Sean Duffy announced plans to supercharge air traffic controller hiring. Over 8,300 applicants were referred to the FAA Academy, resulting in about 600 trainees, the highest number in the Academy's history. The FAA plans to hire at least 8,900 new air traffic controllers by 2028, but factors such as retirements and program dropouts have negatively affected the attempts to increase controller numbers. The DOT states that the Academy has also faced a shortage of qualified instructors, training capacity limitations, an outdated curriculum and a failure rate of over 30% in fiscal year 2024.
The goals of the audit are to assess the FAA's efforts to address the issues the Academy is facing and its progress in updating the ATC training program curriculum. It will be conducted at the FAA Headquarters in Washington, DC, and the Mike Monroney Aeronautical Center in Oklahoma City.
Hiring, training and retaining controllers has been a challenge for the FAA for a long time. The shortage was made worse during the 43-day shutdown in 2025, when air traffic controllers were expected to continue working without pay. Thousands of workers called in sick at that time, flights all across the country were delayed or canceled and 40 high-impact airports were ordered to reduce flight traffic by 10%. Some airports experienced ground stops on all flights due to the shortage of controllers, with some, such as Hollywood Burbank Airport (BUR), going hours without a controller in the tower. The Academy lost up to 500 air traffic controller trainees during that time, according to Politico, and was under threat of shutting down.
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