FAA Recruits 2,000 Gamers As Air Traffic Controllers

The Federal Aviation Administration's push to recruit video gamers as the next generation of air traffic controllers appears to be paying off, with the agency reporting record hiring numbers and thousands of additional candidates in the pipeline.

The U.S. Department of Transportation launched the gamer-focused recruiting campaign in April as part of a broader effort to address the nation's air traffic controller shortage.

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Transportation officials said gamers may already possess several skills that translate to air traffic control, including quick decision-making, spatial awareness, multitasking, strategy and problem-solving.

The campaign also emphasized that applicants do not need a traditional four-year college degree to pursue the career.

"To reach the next generation of air traffic controllers, we need to adapt," Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said when the campaign launched. "This campaign's innovative communication style and focus on gaming taps into a growing demographic of young adults who have many of the hard skills it takes to be a successful controller."

The initial response was substantial. The FAA received 12,350 applications during a single 24-hour hiring window in April, including 10,779 from candidates who met the initial qualifications. Transportation officials said that was more than double the agency's previous first-day application record.

The agency has also worked to speed up what had historically been a lengthy hiring process. Qualified applicants were being processed seven times faster than the previous year, according to the Transportation Department, while other changes have cut more than five months from the overall hiring timeline.

Duffy said in a social media post earlier this month that the FAA has now broken several hiring records, including the most air traffic controller candidates hired in a single year, with more than 2,000.

"In April, we launched a NEW CAMPAIGN to recruit video gamers as air traffic controllers — and supercharged the entire hiring process to get the BEST & BRIGHTEST in faster," Duffy wrote. "The results are HISTORIC."

Duffy said more than 2,000 additional candidates are moving through the hiring pipeline and that the FAA had reached 94% of its hiring goal as of Aug. 9.

The idea of specifically targeting gamers was partly informed by feedback from people already doing the job.

The FAA said only about a quarter of controllers hold a traditional college degree, making the profession a potential fit for young people following alternative career paths.

"Feedback from controller exit interviews reinforces this, with several controllers pointing to gaming as an influence on their ability to think quickly, stay focused, and manage complexity," the agency said when the campaign launched.

The recruiting push is part of a larger effort to rebuild the controller workforce. Transportation officials said earlier this year that the FAA had reached its highest staffing level in six years, with roughly 11,000 controllers working and thousands more trainees in the pipeline.