What's wrong with the system?

For starters, there's an acute shortage of air traffic controllers, who are responsible for directing about 45,000 flights carrying 2.9 million passengers every day. The Federal Aviation Administration has about 13,800 certified controllers at more than 300 facilities, which is 3,000 below the recommended staffing number. With 90% of control towers understaffed, controllers are routinely expected to put in 10-hour days, six days a week. And those controllers have to rely on what the FAA itself describes as "outdated technologies that are unable to meet" modern demands. Partly because of those cascading problems, 2023 saw 19 "serious runway incursions" at U.S. airports where a collision was narrowly avoided, the highest number in nearly a decade. Public concer

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