Controller Workforce Questions

The Federal Aviation Administration has 1,081 fewer controllers today than three years ago, AP reports today. In September 2003, there were 15,386 controllers; as of August, the figure had dropped to 14,305. But FAA Administrator Marion Blakey says the agency has plenty of controllers and adding another one to the late shift at Lexington Blue Grass Airport probably wouldn't have prevented the recent crash there, because the second controller likely would have been in a radar room. The National Air Traffic Controllers Association, not surprisingly, begs to differ, saying the FAA is understaffed at several major airports, including Chicago O'Hare, Atlanta and Dallas.