Originally Posted by
gsphuntr
My buddy left the airline world to be a controller - He loves his job . He maintains his CFI and gets local 135 gigs on the side. He's home everyday - Wheres shorts and a tshirt to work and makes better money and has better benies than me. Not to say there arent any challenges in the ATC world but hey, at least there arent gonna be 4,000 controllers on the street in the next year like there will be pilots in the airline biz.....
Go ask a former ATC controller who is on the street now because of a "contract tower". There are plenty of ATC guys who lost their jobs just before retirement, much like the pilot industry. If you dont know what a contract tower is, it is a tower facility that is run by a private contractor employing controllers who are not employed by the FAA, and are paid a lower salary (many are former military controllers) and they are all over the place. The used to be FAA controlled facilities. Basically any tower that did not a have a tracon facilitiy colocated on the premesis became a contract tower. Every tower in the PHX area except sky harbor are contract towers. So yes there are 4000 controllers on the streets, and I know this because I deal black jack with one of them.