Aero Club of Washington Speech: Safety Is the Destination—Action Must Be the Flight Plan

Mar 12, 2025

On March 12, NATCA President Nick Daniels addressed aviation leaders in attendance at the monthly luncheon of the Aero Club of Washington. The following is his written speech as prepared.

Good afternoon, and thank you for that introduction and for the warm welcome by the Aero Club of Washington. It’s an honor to be here today, speaking to so many leaders who shape the future of aviation.

My name is Nick Daniels. I am President of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association – NATCA.

We gather at a moment of profound consequence. The tragedy on January 29th wasn’t just an accident—it is a call to action. A tragedy without action is a failure to uphold our responsibility to those we lost and to those who trust us to ensure it never happens again.

It must serve as a reminder that safety is not an assumption; it is something we must continuously build and protect. It reminds us of the weight we bear as aviation professionals.

Air Traffic Control is more than a profession—It is a responsibility. And the worst thing we can do in response to a tragedy is to let it pass without action. I have spoken to controllers who were working that night, and they are carrying the weight of that moment, every air traffic controller is. They will never forget it. And we owe it to them—and to every passenger and crew member—to act.

Controllers, pilots, flight attendants, and aviation industry professionals make millions of decisions EACH DAY that protects and saves lives. Air traffic controllers serve quietly, behind the scenes. When something goes wrong, it is felt by every air traffic controller. While our primary function is safety…. safety is a result of properly managing risk. When we identify risks, we must seek solutions and actions in order to preserve safety.

That is why we are here—not just to talk about aviation safety, but to stand up and be part of the solutions we already know must happen. Because if safety is our destination, then action must be the flight plan.

So today we will file our flight plan and take flight together. Just like any well-planned flight, we have critical stops to make before we reach our final destination.

It is time for takeoff: We must first understand the Scale of the Challenge

Defining Safety by Managing Risk. The Air Traffic Controllers and Aviation Safety Professionals that NATCA represents are operating the most complex, dynamic, and high-volume airspace in the world with only 10,800 certified professional controllers—3,600 short of how many are necessary to operate the system today.

Let’s put the National Airspace System (NAS) into perspective:

The U.S. is responsible for the skies covering one-third of all global air traffic.
45,000 flights take off and land in our airspace every day.
2.9 million passengers count on us to get them where they need to go, safely.
Air traffic controllers key their microphones over 1 million times per day, issuing clearances, instructions, and corrections. Almost every one of these transmissions requires a readback because in aviation, nothing is assumed, and nothing is left to chance.

Yet, despite this massive responsibility, we are 3,600 controllers short of the staffing target.

90% of the busiest facilities are critically understaffed.
Controllers are working six-day weeks, 10-hour shifts, for years on end.
Many facilities are operating with 60-70% of the controllers they need.

Having too few controllers enters risk into the system. We must constantly assess and make determinations of how to best manage the operation to ensure the highest levels of safety the American public deserves. This means decisions must be made on how much volume and complexity the National Airspace System can handle on a daily basis at airports and on air traffic routes around the country

Controllers are stretched thin, facilities are burning people out, fatigue is a factor, and the stresses and pressures are increasing. The result? A system that is operating without the margins it was designed to have.

Our goal is to partner with Congress, Secretary Duffy and Acting Administrator Rocheleau to act with urgency to address these issues.

The weight of this challenge is clear. But we do not bring problems without solutions—our flight plan to fix staffing is already mapped out.

We must remain focused on the solution and reject anything that doesn’t solve or address the immediate staffing crisis affecting the NAS.

The solution is the long-term commitment to the hiring and training of the future generation of air traffic controllers. The only way we fix staffing is by working together on each part of the process—1. recruitment, 2. training, 3. retention, and 4. modernization.

Now that we have started our flight together we must make two stops along the way….

Stop One: The Reality of Becoming a Controller and why a long-term commitment is a must.

In our profession and just like with our pilot friend, no one flies alone. Air Traffic Control is the ultimate team sport.

Becoming a Certified Professional Controller is one of the most difficult and selective training pipelines in the federal government. Only 50% of those who start the process will make it to full certification.

Like elite athletes, not everyone who enters the system will reach the professional level. You may be good in high school, or college, but very few make the pros.

A common misconception to keep in mind is the FAA doesn’t hire controllers—it hires trainees. Trainees who must prove they can handle the pressure, precision, and responsibility of the job through a rigorous 2-3 year training process.

Why is it rigorous? Because air traffic controllers must be 100%, 100% of the time—There is no room for error. The stakes are too high. This is why our training demands such high standards.

Let’s break it down:

Phase 1: Initial Training (Oklahoma City)—Trainees learn air traffic fundamentals, multi-tasking, and three-dimensional problem-solving. Historically, only 65% pass this phase.
Phase 2: Facility Training—Those who succeed in Oklahoma are relocated—often far from home—to facilities they never heard of before, in cities they may never have visited. Here, they learn local procedures, airspace layouts, and aircraft operations. If they don’t meet the high standard, they are removed from the training process.
Phase 3: Simulator Training—Trainees now apply their knowledge in high-pressure scenarios where mistakes are dissected and corrected daily. The stress is intense—many trainees question if they have what it takes. This phase eliminates another portion of trainees. If they don’t meet the high standard, they are removed from the training process.
Phase 4: Live Traffic & Final Certification—Trainees work live aircraft, coordinate with fewllow controllers, and earn certification one position at a time. Some facilities require 3-12 individual certifications before reaching full qualification. If a trainee doesn’t meet the high standard for any individual position, they are removed.

This is why controllers are among the most highly trained professionals in the world. And this is why we need a long-term commitment to recruitment, training, and retention.

For those who achieve certifications on all the positions in their facility now earn the title… certified professional air traffic controller… They may have reached the end of training, BUT the sacrifices don’t stop here.

If you are one of the highly skilled and highly trained persons you are now part of a professional team that works weekends, midnights, and holidays—often for six-day weeks, and many cases year after year.

And after all of that, what else do they face?

A facility with chronic staffing shortages that demands overtime just to stay operational.
An outdated building that hasn’t been modernized in decades—Maybe one where the elevator hasn’t worked in months.
A career where burnout is real, and attrition is increasing.

If we expect air traffic controllers to make these sacrifices, then we need to recognize them with meaningful retention incentives and a system that prioritizes their well-being.

We said we would focus on solutions, and here’s what must happen:

Fund ATC tower simulators as authorized in the FAA Reauthorization Act of 2024, which reduce training time by up to 27%.
Recruit the Best and Brightest. We agree with Secretary Duffy: Only the best should serve as controllers. NATCA is committed to working with the Administration and Congress to incentivize recruitment and training of the next generation of air traffic controllers while also focusing on incentivizing the retention of the FAA’s fully certified professional controllers.
Expand training capacity at Oklahoma and/or other locations. It will take until 2032 or 2033 to surpass 14,000 certified controllers—when we need 14,663 today. We cannot afford to push this crisis onto the next generation. A long-term commitment is essential to staffing the NAS and preparing for the future of aviation, which includes the integration of autonomous and unmanned aerial vehicles.

The system only works if we support the hard working women and men within it. If we continue to ask more and give less, the losses will only compound.

Stop Two on our flight: Industry-Wide Solutions

One Sky, One Mission—Decision making and working together must happen Now. We do not need more studies or endless discussions about what needs to happen. We know what must be done—and we need to ensure it gets done…together.

The FAA Reauthorization Act of 2024 provides the flight plan for many of these solutions that we have already discussed with hiring and training, but we must not overlook the importance of modernization.

Facility modernization cannot wait. The average FAA tower is 36 years old. Many are over 50 years old. Tampa’s tower has failing elevators, sewage issues, and safety hazards. We must work together to prioritize facilities that are in disrepair and provide up to date equipment in our existing facilities that can transfer to a new structure when it is built.

For example, in every tower should have a standardized equipment list. Many towers lack a digital ATIS, digital AWOS or ASOS weather information, a TFDM, also known as paperless or electronic flight strips, a modern Information Display system that provides accurate and real time information to controllers, and at a minimum a surface awareness display to enhance situational awareness on and around runways, taxiways, and movement areas.

This takes collaboration with those closest to the issues and that is the front line controller NATCA represents. Collaboration works. When NATCA and the FAA work together, we modernize efficiently and at cost savings to taxpayers.

The Surface Awareness Initiative went from concept to operational deployment in approximately six months.
When NATCA was excluded from modernization efforts in the mid-2000s, every major project fell behind schedule and was over budget.
We must learn from the past. When NATCA is at the table, things get done.When they are not, we pay the price in delays, inefficiencies, and lost resources. This kind of set back can not occur or the flying public, airlines, and many of you will be the ones that deal with the delays and issues a lack of modernization causes.

And now our Final Approach—A Call for Immediate Action

This system does not fix itself. If we don’t act now, this problem won’t just persist—It will grow. More controllers will burn out, more delays will ripple through the system, and more risk will enter the airspace. This is not a warning—It is a reality we can prevent.

Just yesterday, Secretary Duffy announced his plans to develop a request to Congress for the funding and authorization to build a state-of-the-art air traffic control system over the next 3 years. NATCA applauds his announcement. We, NATCA, have been sounding this alarm for more than a decade, and we believe Secretary Duffy is taking the right approach. We cannot wait any longer. He is right, it will cost money. But, we are glad he has the will to get it done.

We know what must be done:

The long term commitment to train and retain controllers at capacity.NATCA stands ready and committed to working together on solutions that meet our mutual goals.
Modernize facilities and replace outdated infrastructure. NATCA stands ready and committed to working together on solutions that meet our mutual goals.
And we must ensure those closest to the issues, NATCA subject matter experts, are at the table for these modernization effort. NATCA stands ready and committed to working together on solutions that meet our mutual goals.

We all have a role to play. NATCA is ready. But we need each of you—lawmakers, industry leaders, decision-makers—to stand with us. Because the future of aviation safety is not someone else’s job. It’s all of ours.

If we wait for another crisis to act, we have already failed.

There is no time left for delays. Like I said, Safety is a result. Safety is a result of managing risk, and WILL be improved through ACTION.

So as I opened, I will close….IF Safety is the destination—ACTION MUST be the flight plan.

Thank you.