Is the Air Traffic Controller Shortage Affecting Air Travel Safety?

Antoine Wilson worked as an air traffic controller for 15 years in Miami before he took a leave of absence last August. 

“I was burned-out,” Wilson said, adding that he had been working six days a week since the pandemic, often in 10-hour shifts. “You just feel like you don’t have a life, and we’d been short staffed since I started the career.”

Wilson is also the owner of travel agency A.D. Elite Travels and co-founder and CEO of Melanated Safaris, a tour operator providing a range of vacation products in Tanzania and Zanzibar. He launched the two enterprises while he was an air traffic controller but started focusing full-time on the two travel businesses at the end of last summer.

After a military helicopter collided with an American Airlines plane in Washington, D.C., in January — an accident that killed 67 people — many of Wilson’s travel advisor colleagues reached out to him. They wanted to know what role air traffic controllers played in the incident. Wilson received similar calls after a Delta Air Lines flight crashed on a Toronto runway in February. 

“And I told them, ‘It has nothing to do with air traffic control,’” Wilson said.

Wilson has listened to audio recordings of the communication between the air traffic controllers and the pilots involved in both accidents, which are currently under investigation by the Transportation Safety Board of Canada and the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB). 

So, is it safe to fly? Here’s what Wilson and others have to say.

Is It Safe to Fly?      

Airlines for America — an advocacy group representing carriers such as United Airlines, Delta Air Lines and American Airlines — said in a Feb. 28 statement that the U.S. is currently facing a shortage of nearly 3,000 air traffic controllers. Wilson said that number sounds about right to him.

“I have air traffic controller friends all over the United States, and everybody is [saying] the same thing,” Wilson said. “Everybody is like, ‘We’re working six days a week; we’re mandatory over time.’ That’s from Miami to Atlanta to New York to Chicago to Los Angeles, and even Phoenix. It’s the same story, no matter what facility you’re at.”

Despite the mounting pressure on many air traffic controllers around the country today, Wilson was quick to reassure anyone worried about air travel. 

“I will say confidently that aviation and U.S. air traffic is the safest in the world,” Wilson said. “And from a travel standpoint, people shouldn’t feel afraid to fly, because it’s still the safest mode of transportation.”

According to NTSB data, the number of fatal U.S. aviation accidents has in fact steadily declined annually over the past two decades, falling from a peak of 339 fatal crashes in 2004 to 179 fatal aviation accidents nationwide in 2024. 

The total number of deadly domestic air crashes is also down year over year in 2025, according to the NTSB. There were 58 fatal accidents nationwide in January 2024 and another 70 in February last year. There were 52 deadly aviation crashes in January this year and 65 in February, the NTSB data says.     

Our national airspace system moves 45,000 flights and 2.9 million passengers across more than 29 million square miles of airspace daily, and that’s a lot.

“The U.S. has the safest aviation system in the world,” said Tori Emerson Barnes, executive vice president of Public Affairs and Policy for the U.S. Travel Association. “Our national airspace system moves 45,000 flights and 2.9 million passengers across more than 29 million square miles of airspace daily, and that’s a lot.” 

Barnes acknowledged a shortage of nearly 3,000 air traffic controllers in the U.S., and expressed support for a recent plan announced by Sean P. Duffy, U.S. transportation secretary, to “supercharge the hiring of air traffic controllers.”

“This staffing shortage has been a known challenge for over a decade, and this administration is committed to solving it,” Duffy said in a statement. 

Are Vacationers Still Flying? 

Peter Vlitas, executive vice president of partner relations for Internova Travel Group, said his company hasn’t seen any real dip in bookings after the plane crashes earlier this year.

“The American consumer has a short attention span,” Vlitas said. “There might have been some apprehension within a short window of the incidents, but that has dissipated, and really, we’re not seeing anybody saying, ‘Oh, I’m scared to fly.’”

There might have been some apprehension within a short window of the incidents, but that has dissipated, and really, we’re not seeing anybody saying, ‘Oh, I’m scared to fly.’

A.D. Elite Travels’ Wilson has witnessed a similar response, or lack thereof, from travelers. 

“I haven’t had any clients decline to travel or say they’re afraid to travel because of the last few incidents,” he said. 

Vlitas was also quick to champion the safety of flying. 

“Air is still one of the safest modes of transportation, and the proof in the pudding is that planes are full and people are going on vacation; there’s no blip in that,” he said. 

The Internova executive did, however, agree that the shortage of U.S. air traffic controllers is a substantial problem and pointed specifically to some delays at busy airports caused by staffing issues. 

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“I’ve been on flights to New York — coming up from Washington, D.C., or from Dallas — and there’s a delay to take off,” Vlitas said. “Why? Because air traffic control is holding [the plane]. And this happens because there are not enough trained FAA controllers.”

Vlitas said a sizeable chunk of today’s air traffic controller shortage is the result of pausing the Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) controller training programs during the pandemic. 

“The government needs to focus on getting more trained FAA controllers,” he said. “Not because it’s not safe, but in order to alleviate some of the congestion we have at airports during peak periods.”