The Trump administration is aiming to increase recruitment by offering a pay raise of 30% to air traffic controllers.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy announced the news during a Thursday press conference held at an air traffic control academy in Oklahoma. The pay structure for air traffic controllers and the technologies they are required to use, he argued, are out of date.
Students are currently paid $17.61 per hour. You could probably make this at Walgreens. Duffy explained that the rate would be increased to $22.84 per hour.
“I think it’s important to make sure that people can live comfortably while going to school. The real incentive, however, is that after three years, you are certified and earn an average of $160,000 per year. You can earn a good salary as an air traffic controller, whether you are 23 or 24. “
Duffy stated that Congress will need to provide “billions of dollars” for additional funding at the DOT to implement the plan.
Elon Musk has also asked retired air traffic controllers to come back to work.
This announcement follows a series of aviation disasters that occurred in the last few weeks. However, only a small number of these were attributed to air traffic controllers.
Recently, on the runway of Chicago, a Southwest Airlines plane narrowly missed a collision when it came into contact with a Flexjet Business Jet. Southwest was preparing to land when the Flexjet crossed the runway, apparently ignoring air traffic control instructions.
The Southwest pilots were able to take off again fast enough to prevent a collision.
The National Transportation Safety Board says it is still investigating Tuesday’s incident. Trump himself called for the Flexjet pilots to have their licenses revoked if the investigation exposed wrongdoing.
