Air traffic controllers may get pay hike as Trump admin looks to boost recruitment

Air traffic controllers are set to receive a 30% pay hike as President Donald Trump’s administration seeks to boost recruitment Thursday.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy made the announcement during a press conference at the air traffic controller’s academy in Oklahoma on Thursday. He argued that the pay structure and the technology air traffic controllers are forced to use are outdated.

“Currently, students are paid $17.61 an hour. By the way, you might be able to go to Walgreens and make that, right? So we’re going to bump it up to $22.84 an hour,” Duffy said. 

“And again, I think making sure people have a wage that can allow them to live while they’re going through school. But the real incentive is, again, three years out of this academy, and you’re certified, on average, $160,000 a year. So you can be 24 years old, 23 years old, making a great salary, as an air traffic controller.”

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Duffy noted that the pay increase plan will require Congress to approve “billions” in additional funding for the DOT.

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The announcement comes after a string of air travel disasters in recent weeks, though few of them were blamed on air traffic control.

Most recently, a Southwest airliner narrowly avoided a collision with a Flexjet business jet on a runway in Chicago. The Southwest plane was coming in for landing as the Flexjet, allegedly ignoring instructions from air traffic control, crossed the landing strip.

Pilots in the Southwest plane were able to take off again quickly enough to avoid a collision.

The National Transportation Safety Board says it is still investigating Tuesday’s incident. Trump himself called for the Flexjet pilots to have their licenses revoked if the investigation exposes wrongdoing.