{"id":42783,"date":"2026-08-13T08:44:57","date_gmt":"2026-08-13T03:44:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=42783"},"modified":"2026-08-13T08:44:57","modified_gmt":"2026-08-13T03:44:57","slug":"natca-praises-faa-strategy-to-hire-more-gamers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=42783","title":{"rendered":"NATCA praises FAA strategy to hire more gamers"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<br \/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/thehill.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/08\/Closer-FAA_110825_AP_Rodd-D-Franklin.jpg?w=900\" \/><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>\n        <iframe id=\"instaread_iframe\" width=\"100%\" height=\"100%\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"0\" loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Audio Article\" style=\"display:block\" data-pin-nopin=\"true\"><\/iframe>\n    <\/p>\n<p><\/instaread-player><\/p>\n<p>Nick Daniels, president of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association, commended the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Wednesday for its recent <a href=\"https:\/\/thehill.com\/policy\/transportation\/6022847-faa-hires-2000-gamers-to-be-air-traffic-controllers\/\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/thehill.com\/policy\/transportation\/6022847-faa-hires-2000-gamers-to-be-air-traffic-controllers\/\">hiring surge<\/a> targeting video game players.<\/p>\n<p>Daniels told NewsNation, The Hill\u2019s sister company, that gaming skills \u201cabsolutely\u201d translate to working as an air traffic controller and called the FAA\u2019s move an \u201cinnovative approach to capture the attention of the American youth.\u201d<\/p>\n<aside class=\"ad-unit ad-unit--mr1_ab\">\n<\/aside>\n<p>\u201cFor far too long, air traffic controllers have been the people behind the curtain that you don\u2019t really know about,\u201d Daniels said.<\/p>\n<p>He added, \u201cWe 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.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<p>The hiring campaign began in April, after Duffy announced in April that the FAA would <a href=\"https:\/\/www.transportation.gov\/briefing-room\/trumps-transportation-secretary-sean-p-duffy-and-federal-aviation-administration\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.transportation.gov\/briefing-room\/trumps-transportation-secretary-sean-p-duffy-and-federal-aviation-administration\">focus its recruiting effort<\/a> on gamers, then saying he believed the move would help the agency reach \u201ca growing demographic of young adults who have many of the hard skills it takes to be a successful controller.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTo be fully certified, completely talking to an aircraft by yourself will vary from position to position \u2026 you will be on your own, but you\u2019re still surrounded,\u201d Daniels told NewsNation. \u201cIt is a teamwork environment. We all look out for each other.\u201d<\/p>\n<aside class=\"ad-unit ad-unit--mr2_ab\">\n<\/aside>\n<p>Daniels noted that this process is an \u201cinnovative approach\u201d to prevent controller shortages.<\/p>\n<p>The agency faced a swath of air traffic controller resignations and <a href=\"https:\/\/thehill.com\/regulation\/transportation\/5584477-faa-increased-air-traffic-controller-shortage-shutdown\/\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/thehill.com\/regulation\/transportation\/5584477-faa-increased-air-traffic-controller-shortage-shutdown\/\">call-outs<\/a> amid two long government shutdowns over the last year.<\/p>\n<p>The FAA\u2019s 2026 <a href=\"https:\/\/bit.ly\/4wRovmO\">Air Traffic Controller Workforce Plan<\/a>, 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\u2019s hiring target.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"ad-unit ad-unit--mr3_ab\">\n<\/aside>\n<p>As of Aug. 9, Duffy reported that 94% of the FAA\u2019s hiring goal had been met.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Copyright 2026 Nexstar Media Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.<\/p>\n<script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>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\u2019s sister company, that gaming skills \u201cabsolutely\u201d translate to working as an air traffic controller and called the FAA\u2019s move an \u201cinnovative approach to capture&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":42784,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thehill.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/08\/Closer-FAA_110825_AP_Rodd-D-Franklin.jpg?w=1280","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-42783","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-political-news"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42783","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=42783"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42783\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/42784"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=42783"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=42783"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=42783"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}