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u/Ecstatic-Tap4151

r/atc2 r/ImproveATC_
▲ 63 r/ImproveATC_

Work the traffic.

If someone occupies a CPC staffing line but routinely avoids working live traffic through details, office assignments, union duties, training roles, or other non-operational work, the facility may appear better staffed on paper than it actually is.

u/Ecstatic-Tap4151 — 6 days ago
▲ 66 r/atc2

Proposal of a CPC Media Panel

WHAT IS A CPC MEDIA PANEL?

Panel members would:
• Come from towers, TRACONs, and centers
• Represent different facility levels and staffing conditions
• Regularly work live operational positions
• Not be NATCA officers, facility representatives, FAA managers, or full-time detail employees
• Speak from their own experience without scripts or prior approval from NATCA leadership
• Receive protection from internal union retaliation for good-faith public statements

This would not be another FAA-NATCA workgroup. It would not develop policy, negotiate contracts, or speak for union leadership.

Its purpose would be simple:
Give the public direct access to the CPCs actually working today’s traffic.

Controllers are discussed in the media every day. It is time to let them participate in the conversation.

u/Ecstatic-Tap4151 — 7 days ago
▲ 29 r/ImproveATC_

Hiring is a paperwork goal.

This needs to happen repeatedly until the trainees make it to CPC 2-5 years from now. Airspace is complicated, and we don't have enough controllers to work live traffic and train at the same time. Pay the pros.

u/Ecstatic-Tap4151 — 10 days ago
▲ 172 r/atc2

Northeast staffing & weather.

For any travelers flying in and out of the Northeast — please be prepared for delays and cancellations due to controllers calling out sick on top of difficult weather patterns.

When roughly 40-60% of controllers call out sick at multiple facilities in the New York region, we have to delay flights to maintain the safety of the airspace.

Check your flight status with your airline and get real-time staffing and airport updates at fly.faa.gov

u/Ecstatic-Tap4151 — 13 days ago
▲ 45 r/ImproveATC_

A question for the FAA.

This isn't criticism of Marine One pilots.

It's a question for the FAA.

If staffing, rest and compensation matter for the pilots entrusted with protecting the President, why wouldn't those same things matter for the air traffic controllers responsible for separating his aircraft from everyone else?

Safety doesn't stop at the other end of the radio.

u/Ecstatic-Tap4151 — 14 days ago
▲ 37 r/ImproveATC_

The NASEM report does not recommend raising TOP from four to five hours

The report is The Air Traffic Controller Workforce Imperative: Staffing Models and Their Implementation to Ensure Safe and Efficient Airspace Operations, published in 2025 by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.

A 12-member outside committee, with one retired military controller and no identified current FAA controllers, reviewed FAA staffing and timekeeping data. It did not conduct a controlled scientific study proving that today’s FAA controllers should work more time on position. (The committee biographies begin on page 207.)

This was not a human-performance study establishing that controllers can safely work five hours, or more, on position.

The report does not recommend:

• Raising TOP from four to five hours

• Establishing five hours as a minimum

• Returning controllers to the productivity of “20 years ago”

• Lowering national staffing targets because reported average TOP is below five hours

• Reducing recovery periods

• Assuming all time not recorded as TOP is idle time

Five hours was a staffing-model ceiling designed to add controllers, not a productivity quota designed to eliminate them.

nationalacademies.org
u/Ecstatic-Tap4151 — 18 days ago
▲ 52 r/ImproveATC_

It’s becoming difficult to ignore how many NATCA members are joining Improve ATC.

Apparently, when members are denied honest answers about pay, staffing, fatigue, contract decisions, and union spending, they don’t simply stop asking questions. Strange how that works.

u/Ecstatic-Tap4151 — 22 days ago
▲ 48 r/ImproveATC_

153,359 flights in one single day, July 23, 2026.

Air traffic keeps setting records. Controller workload keeps increasing. Yet U.S. controllers are still working under outdated 2009 pay bands, chronic overtime, and six-day workweeks.

Pay the Pros

u/Ecstatic-Tap4151 — 23 days ago
▲ 18 r/ImproveATC_

Air traffic control changes continuously. Staffing, fatigue science, technology, traffic volume, schedules, and cost of living do not pause for a five- or ten-year contract cycle. A contract governing those conditions should not be treated like a sealed time capsule.

The parties will maintain a permanent joint contract-review committee. Either party may propose amendments to specified articles throughout the agreement’s term. Agreed amendments will become effective as supplemental agreements without reopening or terminating the remainder of the CBA. Unresolved proposals will be carried into scheduled quarterly bargaining sessions or the next full-term negotiation.

u/Ecstatic-Tap4151 — 25 days ago