Nick Daniels, president of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association, commended the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Wednesday for its recent hiring surge targeting video game players.
Daniels told NewsNation, The Hill’s sister company, that gaming skills “absolutely” translate to working as an air traffic controller and called the FAA’s move an “innovative approach to capture the attention of the American youth.”
“For far too long, air traffic controllers have been the people behind the curtain that you don’t really know about,” Daniels said.
He added, “We get accused of being the ones with the wands. And those people who marshal airplanes do an amazing job, but these are the ones in the towers, our trade coms and in-route facilities across the country, ensuring over 55,000 flights a day arrive at their destination safely.”
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy announced Sunday that the FAA had hired more than 2,000 air traffic controllers, adding that it was the most candidates it brought on in single year.
The hiring campaign began in April, after Duffy announced in April that the FAA would focus its recruiting effort on gamers, then saying he believed the move would help the agency reach “a growing demographic of young adults who have many of the hard skills it takes to be a successful controller.”
The takes around three months on average to train air traffic controllers, Daniels said Wednesday. They then receive on-the-job training, which can take between two to three years.
“To be fully certified, completely talking to an aircraft by yourself will vary from position to position … you will be on your own, but you’re still surrounded,” Daniels told NewsNation. “It is a teamwork environment. We all look out for each other.”
Daniels noted that this process is an “innovative approach” to prevent controller shortages.
The agency faced a swath of air traffic controller resignations and call-outs amid two long government shutdowns over the last year.
The FAA’s 2026 Air Traffic Controller Workforce Plan, published in May, cut its target of 14,633 controllers from 2025 to 12,563 for 2026. At the time, it had reached 60% of the year’s hiring target.
As of Aug. 9, Duffy reported that 94% of the FAA’s hiring goal had been met.
Copyright 2026 Nexstar Media Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
