The FAA said Friday it will open its annual hiring window for entry-level air traffic controllers at midnight on April 17, which will close after 8,000 submissions have been received.
The announcement comes with a new recruitment campaign from the Department of Transportation and FAA that uses video game-themed branding and messaging aimed at younger applicants. According to the agency, the effort is intended to reach people with skills considered relevant to the profession, including multitasking, spatial awareness and rapid decision-making.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said the campaign was built to appeal to prospective applicants whose backgrounds may not follow a traditional college path.
“To reach the next generation of air traffic controllers, we need to adapt,” Duffy said. “This campaign’s innovative communication style and focus on gaming taps into a growing demographic of young adults who have many of the hard skills it takes to be a successful controller.”
The FAA said applicants do not need a college degree, but must meet age, citizenship and English-language requirements before moving through testing, medical and security screening, academy training in Oklahoma City and field training.
The agency said it currently has nearly 11,000 controllers in service and more than 4,000 trainees in the pipeline, and that it has already onboarded nearly 1,200 new controllers toward its fiscal 2026 hiring goal. The latest push follows the FAA’s recent budget request seeking funding for 2,300 controller trainees in fiscal 2027 as part of a longer-term staffing plan tied to training and modernization needs.
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