"Air-traffic controllers at Philadelphia Airport predict labor shortage"

Saturday, July 3, 2004

Air-traffic controllers at Philadelphia Airport predict labor shortage
The Philadelphia (PA) Inquirer


Air-traffic controllers at Philadelphia International Airport said
yesterday that their department was short-staffed and would become even
more so as a wave of mandatory retirements hits in coming years.

Short-staffing can cause delays, as controllers slow traffic at the
airport to levels that they can accommodate safely.

"The problem at the Philadelphia airport is especially acute," said Don
Chapman, president of the local chapter of the National Air Traffic
Controllers union, describing the airport as "the busiest in the
Northeast corridor" in terms of takeoffs and landings.

Chapman called a news conference yesterday to push for $14 million from
the federal government to train new controllers.

On June 7, U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter (R., Pa.) and six other members of
the Senate subcommittee on transportation asked the panel's chair to
include the $14 million in an appropriation bill for fiscal year 2005.

The controllers' bosses at the Federal Aviation Administration agree
with the bid for more funding. Like the controllers, they are worried
about staffing.

In 2007, nearly half of the controllers in the United States will become
eligible for retirement. It takes several years to train replacements.

In Philadelphia, 12 of the 89 staffers are eligible for retirement this
year, and two must retire because they will have reached the mandatory
retirement age of 56.

While both sides agree about the retirement, they disagree about the
current situation in Philadelphia.

The FAA says the proper minimum staffing for the airport is 83, and
there are 89 now employed, with 11 new controllers expected by February,
spokesman Greg Martin said.

The controllers say their contract mandates 109, and the 89 now working
include 20 trainees who cannot handle every position alone.

Chapman said new radar technology that would move planes into the
airport more quickly often goes unused because there are not enough
extra controllers to staff it.

Martin said the technology was used only under special circumstances,
and when it was needed, overtime was paid to properly staff it.

"Morale is at an all-time low," Chapman said, partly because managers
are pushing controllers to monitor more than one portion of the sky at a
time.

That work is causing stress and an increase in controller errors, he
said. The most common error is allowing planes to fly too close to one
another -- a situation that is not optimum, but is not necessarily
dangerous.

Several controllers have been out of work with post-traumatic stress
disorder, he said.

Martin said controllers were asked to handle multiple sectors at slower
times.

To cope with the coming shortage, the agency is analyzing staffing
levels and air-traffic patterns to increase airport efficiency.

It is also looking for ways to shorten training times by using
simulators and considering whether the mandatory retirement age can be
pushed back. Airline pilots, for example, must retire at age 60.


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