The FAA is reviewing its budget in order to meet the congressional mandate to cut back by 1 percent, FAA spokesman Greg Martin told AVweb yesterday, and has made no determination as yet regarding how that might affect the controller-hiring target. “We’re evaluating the entire landscape of our needs and priorities,” he said. “We continue to work hard to fulfill a plan in which we will hire more controllers than we lose by attrition.” Preparing for and hiring replacements for pending controller retirements is “an important priority” for the FAA, he said. Martin also noted that when the hiring plan was announced in 2004, it was expected that the plan would be updated on an annual basis.
