During the shutdown, air traffic controllers employed by 4 companies didn't skip paychecks

MARK BRODIE: One of the more visible impacts for a lot of Americans during the federal government shutdown was flights being canceled — and one of the main reasons that happened was a lack of air traffic controllers.

Those federal employees were required to work without pay for the duration of the 43-day shutdown. Some called in sick and had to take other jobs to make ends meet during that time.

But not all air traffic controllers were affected like that.

Some are not federal employees, but instead work for one of four companies that staffs towers across the country, including at Mesa Gateway, Flagstaff and Chandler Airports.

With me to talk more about this is Kyle Wilkerson, program coordinator for air traffic control at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Prescott.

And Kyle, what's the difference between an air traffic controller who goes through the FAA training and one who goes through a different one?

KYLE WILKERSON: Yeah, so actually there's not very many differences between the two. There are private companies that operate in the United States and satisfy those federal contract tower obligations.

And there's actually the majority of the towers across the country are covered by federal contract towers. There's actually, yeah, more than 50% of them are operated via private companies.

BRODIE: So do these tend to be smaller airports? I just wonder, you know, when during, for example, the federal government shutdown and air traffic controllers, of course, were not getting paid, and we heard so much about how they weren't showing up to work and had to, you know, get other jobs to make ends meet and pay their bills, that air traffic slowed down considerably.

Was that because the FAA workers tend to be more at large commercial airports as opposed to smaller ones?

WILKERSON: That's correct. So these towers, these federal contract towers through the FCT program are generally smaller facilities or smaller towers across the country.

And so when you're talking about those really large, heavy-hitter airports such as San Francisco or Phoenix, those are federal, those are under the FAA. And so that's where you're seeing the controllers that were impacted heavily by, by the federal shutdown.

BRODIE: Is that on purpose or is that just kind of the way it's worked out?

WILKERSON: It's just the way it's worked out, not, not necessarily on purpose per se. But, as these companies pick up more contracts, you're going to see that number start to tick up of how many facilities are managed by federal contracts. ... Mesa Gateway is a good example. That's a pretty decent-sized airport. And so there are some larger airports that are picked up by federal contracts.

BRODIE: OK, so I want to ask you about that. I mean, I was, I'm curious if you see a future in which more air traffic controllers are not working directly for the FAA? It sounds like you do see a future like that.

WILKERSON: I think that number is going to ebb and flow as, as time goes on. ... The FAA is actively accepting applications and adding federal contract towers to the program. And so air traffic control facilities, as well as airports, aren't something that you see built all the time or on a regular basis. There's a lot of hoops you've got to jump through to get one of these up and running.

And so it's naturally easier to see a federal facility, a federal tower, transition to a contract facility. So that's why you'd see that number shift and honestly that's why we have a greater percentage — over 50% of the towers across the country are managed by these private companies.

So I can't definitively say that it's going to transition that way and we're going to see more private operators versus federal. That number, like I said, is just going to shift.

BRODIE: Are there advantages and disadvantages to the air traffic system of either FAA air traffic controllers or contract air traffic controllers?

WILKERSON: Ultimately, no. That is a pretty subjective question, mainly just because it just kind of depends on how the, the businesses are run. Because they're private companies, they may have different policies on how they manage their, their folks, their employees. And so you're going to find with any company, right, the culture is a big deal, and culture changes per company.

And so you can have somebody that rolls into one company or works for somebody for a long period of time and they absolutely love it. And then they might shift over to a different company and not like that culture.

BRODIE: But I guess one thing we should clarify is for those contract air traffic controllers, they all got paid during the shutdown, right, whereas the FAA employees did not.

WILKERSON: Yeah, yeah, correct. And to be very clear about it as well, these federal contract towers are held to the same standard as FAA employees in FAA towers. So there's actually no difference in the operation of aircraft as they're transitioning across the airspaces or departing from a particular airfield. Whether that is a federal contract tower or an FAA tower, they follow all the same rules, and to be a controller in a contract tower, you also have to pass the same exact training that that federal controllers do as well.

BRODIE: Right. Whose decision is it whether or not a particular airport's tower is going to be staffed by FAA or contract employees?

WILKERSON: It's usually a combination of both the city as well as the company that wants to apply. Like I said, there's, there's about four companies that are in the, in the industry at the present moment in the United States. And they may be looking at traffic flow, whether there's a cost-benefit analysis completed. And they'll determine whether it financially makes sense for the FAA to start providing that service through the federal contract program. And whether it's going to be lucrative enough for that particular company.

So it really is a joint effort between the city, between the company that's going to be looking at placing their folks there, their facility there. And obviously the FAA is heavily involved because obviously everything in the United States airspace, the national airspace is managed by them.

BRODIE: Yeah, well, it sounds like one of the considerations — not the only one, but one of them is — is it more or less expensive for the FAA to staff a tower on its own or to hire a company to have its contract workers come and do it?

WILKERSON: Precisely, yes.

Connor McShane

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BRODIE: Understanding that, as you say, there are different companies that have ... different cultures and different, not standards, but sort of different ways of doing things to some extent. I'm wondering if the pay is generally similar between working for one of the private companies and working directly for the FAA.

WILKERSON: The pay is generally similar. You're ... going to see that the majority of the controllers that are working for federal contract towers, because they're working at smaller facilities. They're not dealing with higher traffic counts. And so you're going to see a reduction in pay just simply because of that, because their responsibilities, I don't want to say are less important in any way. But because the traffic count drops.

BRODIE: Do you foresee a time when there will be enough air traffic controllers to really fully staff the towers across this country the way they ought to be staffed?

WILKERSON: I think without, you know, avoiding a heavily political answer ... it eventually could get there. I think it really could, and mainly because the, the changes that I've seen and the positive strides that we've actively seen in just the last three to four years in air traffic control training, as well as the processes to get people into the industry, it has changed drastically — in really, really good ways. And honestly, that was, that was some changes that I did not anticipate to see in my lifetime.

These changes aren't, again, something that's going to happen overnight. We do have to understand that it takes training. It takes time to get people through that training, and we have to hold people to a very high standard. And so it's not going to be an overnight fix, but I do actively believe that we're gonna be eventually fixing that. ... This is a very evolving industry and things are changing in the right direction.

BRODIE: Are you seeing students at Embry-Riddle who are interested in a career in air traffic controlling, whereas maybe before you didn't?

WILKERSON: Absolutely. The publicity that we've received —and I don't, I don't say we as ... the university — but the publicity that we have seen in air traffic control in general is really drawing a lot of attention from up and coming potential candidates.

We have a lot of students that come in here and they didn't even think about air traffic control until they saw on the news that they need controllers in the industry right now, and that piqued their interest.

They look at the industry, they look at the neat things that air traffic controllers do on a day to day basis. And it just piques their interest, and all of a sudden that's what they want to do and start looking into. So yes, we are actively seeing a lot of people really show a lot of interest in air traffic control.