The Federal Aviation Administration has issued a rule that
would allow graduates of schools in its collegiate training
initiative to apply for one-year extensions of hiring
eligibility up to the cutoff age of 31, the Nation Association
of Air Traffic Controllers has announced.
It said lifting the policy that requires candidates to start
work within two years after graduating would help bring in
the next generation of controllers because the increased
flexibility would help avoid a hiring backlog.
“NATCA has pressed for this change because the students
should not have been made to suffer because the FAA was
slow in hiring,” said NATCA Executive Vice President Ruth
Marlin.
The agency announced recently plans to hire 1,249 controllers
in fiscal 2006, and thousands more over ten years to
compensate for a projected loss of about 75 percent of the
controller workforce during that period.
