OKLAHOMA CITY — Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy announced on Thursday that the Federal Aviation Administration would increase the pay for air traffic controller trainees by $5 an hour as a part of an effort to boost recruitment and retention.

In a briefing for reporters at the FAA Academy in Oklahoma City, where air traffic controllers train, Duffy said the raise would boost the trainees’ pay to $22.84 an hour, from $17.61. He expects the pay increase to go into effect within the next month, he said.

“Cost of living has gone up,” Duffy said. He said the agency was increasing pay to make sure people had “a wage that can allow them to live while they’re going through school.”

The funds to provide the increase are available, Duffy said, and will not necessitate a request to Congress.

Duffy Shares Plan to Fast-Track Applicants

Duffy also shared his plans to fast-track high-scoring applicants into open spots at the academy, ensuring the aviation safety agency does not lose them while they wait for a position to open. He said he also intended to speed up what he described as the FAA’s inefficient and slow hiring process.

Duffy toured the facility and met with trainees to discuss the challenges of their jobs and to see their training firsthand.

More than 90% of the country’s air traffic control facilities are short-staffed, according to a New York Times analysis. Some of the control towers themselves are falling apart, Duffy said.

Aside from staffing issues, Duffy touched on the need to upgrade outdated technology that has been expensive to maintain, such as the agency’s rotary phones.

“It was cheap technology at one point, but today, it’s expensive because you don’t have parts,” Duffy said. “You don’t have people who know how to fix a rotary phone, because it’s so old.”

Although challenges with the nation’s air traffic control system predate Duffy’s time as transportation secretary, President Donald Trump has made it one of his mandates to begin fixing the problems after a series of crashes and near misses since he took office, including on Jan. 29, when an American Airlines regional jet and an Army Black Hawk helicopter collided above the Potomac River near Ronald Reagan National Airport in Washington, D.C., killing 67 people. It was the deadliest U.S. commercial plane crash in more than a decade.

FAA Loses 400 Employees

The FAA recently lost about 400 employees as part of the Trump administration’s restructuring of the federal government.

Air traffic controllers and aviation safety inspectors were exempt from the cuts, although union representatives say that critical support staff were laid off.

Duffy insists the agency will continue to hire air traffic controllers.

“I don’t want to see people lose their lives because we have an air traffic control system that fails, and time is of the essence,” Duffy said.

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This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

By Mark Walker/Maansi Srivastava
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