$100,000 Bonus for NY ATC
07-14-2008 | 01:41 PM
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From: C-5 Reserve Pilot
$100,000 Bonus for NY ATC
I thought this was interesting. Sounds like a slap in the face to the ATC controllers who have been fighting for a new contract for years. Let's hope this doesn't happen to the airlines.
The FAA has offered an unprecedented $100,000 bonus to air-traffic controllers throughout the country to lure them to the New York area's five understaffed radar centers - and has even begun trolling local high schools to recruit for the jobs.
The FAA began its recruitment efforts in high schools and through online ads on MySpace and Craigslist because of a severe staffing shortage and lack of experience among workers at its air-control towers.
One recent hire is a 20-year-old who is now reading the scopes for the Terminal Radar Approach Control (TRACON) center in Westbury, LI, officials said.
By 2011, 59 percent of all controllers will have less than five years on the job.
The recently hired 20-year-old man has a bachelor's degree in air-traffic control, but other new hires can come straight out of 12th grade. They go through three months of training before becoming "controllers in training" and eventually full-fledged staffers.
Thirty trained controllers have already accepted the Federal Aviation Administration's offer of a $27,000, one-time bonus to move to New York, plus another $75,000 paid over four years.
The offer - pitched to applicants from June 17 to July 8 - was made in an effort to cope with a higher-than-expected wave of retirements in the FAA, officials said.
The move came as two terrifying close calls rattled controllers at two area airports.
One incident, on July 5, involved two passenger jets that controllers said came within 100 feet of colliding at Kennedy Airport in a "very scary, near-midair collision."
The other, on June 25, occurred when a Learjet was cleared to land on a runway at New Jersey's Teterboro Airport - 150 feet above workers painting an "X" on the strip to indicate it was out of service.
The new air-traffic-control hires "are a welcome edition to the TRACON staff," said FAA spokesman Jim Peters, referring to the TRACONs in New York and New Jersey.
But the 30 newcomers will do little to alleviate the current staffing crisis, warned Barrett Byrnes, a traffic-controllers union official who works in the JFK Airport tower.
"For even the sharpest controller out there, it will take a year and a half to get fully certified," he said.
Every air-traffic-control region is different and requires extensive training to become certified, he said.
"They haven't had anybody certified [at the JFK tower] in over two years. Bringing in over 30 people isn't a quick-fix solution. There's no guarantee anybody will check out and be certified," Byrnes said.
The union is also worried what effect the bonuses will have on morale, Byrnes said.
"Giving new people $100,000 bonuses while the people doing the work day in and day out, year after year are getting their brains kicked in is just a slap in the face," he said.
The FAA has offered an unprecedented $100,000 bonus to air-traffic controllers throughout the country to lure them to the New York area's five understaffed radar centers - and has even begun trolling local high schools to recruit for the jobs.
The FAA began its recruitment efforts in high schools and through online ads on MySpace and Craigslist because of a severe staffing shortage and lack of experience among workers at its air-control towers.
One recent hire is a 20-year-old who is now reading the scopes for the Terminal Radar Approach Control (TRACON) center in Westbury, LI, officials said.
By 2011, 59 percent of all controllers will have less than five years on the job.
The recently hired 20-year-old man has a bachelor's degree in air-traffic control, but other new hires can come straight out of 12th grade. They go through three months of training before becoming "controllers in training" and eventually full-fledged staffers.
Thirty trained controllers have already accepted the Federal Aviation Administration's offer of a $27,000, one-time bonus to move to New York, plus another $75,000 paid over four years.
The offer - pitched to applicants from June 17 to July 8 - was made in an effort to cope with a higher-than-expected wave of retirements in the FAA, officials said.
The move came as two terrifying close calls rattled controllers at two area airports.
One incident, on July 5, involved two passenger jets that controllers said came within 100 feet of colliding at Kennedy Airport in a "very scary, near-midair collision."
The other, on June 25, occurred when a Learjet was cleared to land on a runway at New Jersey's Teterboro Airport - 150 feet above workers painting an "X" on the strip to indicate it was out of service.
The new air-traffic-control hires "are a welcome edition to the TRACON staff," said FAA spokesman Jim Peters, referring to the TRACONs in New York and New Jersey.
But the 30 newcomers will do little to alleviate the current staffing crisis, warned Barrett Byrnes, a traffic-controllers union official who works in the JFK Airport tower.
"For even the sharpest controller out there, it will take a year and a half to get fully certified," he said.
Every air-traffic-control region is different and requires extensive training to become certified, he said.
"They haven't had anybody certified [at the JFK tower] in over two years. Bringing in over 30 people isn't a quick-fix solution. There's no guarantee anybody will check out and be certified," Byrnes said.
The union is also worried what effect the bonuses will have on morale, Byrnes said.
"Giving new people $100,000 bonuses while the people doing the work day in and day out, year after year are getting their brains kicked in is just a slap in the face," he said.
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