- Air traffic controllers are exempt from a buyout offer President Trump’s administration introduced last week to nearly 2 million federal workers, including controllers. The clarification follows two deadly plane crashes, which renewed fears of the impact of air traffic controller shortages on aviation safety.
President Donald Trump’s administration is exempting air traffic controllers from government buyouts that were offered to millions of federal employees as a financial incentive to quit.
Last week, President Donald Trump signed an executive order granting nearly 2 million civil servants the ability to resign from their positions in exchange for eight months of severance pay. It is part of a sweeping effort to slash the size of the federal government in hopes of a bureaucratic overhaul.
The buyout offers came one day before an American Airlines flight collided with a U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter just outside Washington, D.C.’s Ronald Reagan National Airport, killing 67 people. The same week, a medical transport jet crashed into a busy intersection in northeast Philadelphia, resulting in seven deaths and 19 injured—and making the three-day span the deadliest in U.S. aviation since 2001.
While the buyout offer was initially sent to air traffic controllers, along with other Federal Aviation Administration employees, an official with the Office of Personnel Management told the Associated Press on Friday that controllers are not eligible for the offer. An OPM spokesperson told Fortune air traffic controllers were exempt from the buyout, even before the administration's clarification.
And on Monday, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy told CNN “the critical positions in regard to safety” are not given the buyout option. According to an updated fact sheet from the Office of Personnel Management, federal employees in "positions related to public safety and those in other positions specifically excluded by your employing agency” are exempt.
“We're going to keep all our safety positions in place, no early retirement," Duffy said. "We're all going to stay and work and make sure our skies are safe."
Persisting air traffic control shortages
Duffy also said the FAA, which oversees aviation safety, is actively hiring air traffic controllers.
The American Airlines tragedy is under investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board and FAA, which found in a report following the accident that only one air traffic controller was working a post at Reagan airport instead of two.
“The position configuration was not normal for the time of day and volume of traffic,” the report said, according to multiple outlets who viewed the document.
The recent crashes have stoked arguments that the persistent shortage of air traffic controllers has compromised airline safety. As of January, 285 of 313 air traffic control facilities were understaffed, according to a New York Times analysis of staffing data from a controllers’ union.
Though the number of air traffic controllers reached a 30-year low prior to the pandemic, COVID exacerbated the shortage, according to findings from an FAA audit on staffing shortages that were outlined in a June 2023 report. The audit found partial shutdowns caused by employees testing positive for the virus and slowing hiring and training processes.
“During our site visits, several managers stated that when the pandemic started, many instructors left the positions due to the high risk of being exposed to COVID-19,” the report said. “The managers stated the limited availability of instructors has made it hard to certify trainees in a timely manner.”
According to the report, updated Jan. 31, the FAA has sought to rectify the shortages and hired 1,512 new controllers in fiscal 2023, growing its five-year hiring total of controllers to more than 4,975. The FAA did not immediately respond to Fortune’s request for comment.
The Trump administration, including Duffy, has blamed diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives, but there is no evidence to support the claim.
“When you don’t focus on safety and you focus on social justice or the environment, bad things happen,” Duffy said in the CNN interview.
