Students with sky high dreams now have an inside track to get jobs quicker.
Participants in Tulsa Community College’s Air Traffic Control program previously had to go to Oklahoma City to the only Federal Aviation Administration Academy to complete training. The requirement created a waitlist.
TCC and the FAA’s new agreement allows students to bypass OKC training and go directly to on-the-job learning. TCC Air Traffic Control Program Coordinator Terry Daniel said bringing in new people is a lot faster now.
“Before it’s been a year to a year and a half process to get hired by the FAA,” Daniel said, “Now within just a couple of weeks, they will do what they call on-the-spot hiring.”
Air traffic control students at the University of Oklahoma will also be able to skip training at the FAA academy and go right to mid-sized airports like Tulsa International or OKC’s Will Rogers. The change comes amid a shortage of air traffic controllers that’s caused issues.
“I had a graduate that graduated 10 years ago that finally got to his dream airport, which is DFW, but it took him 10 years because of the controller shortage,” said Daniel.
The agency announced earlier this year a goal of hiring 1,800 new air traffic controllers. The agency still needs roughly 3,000 new controllers to meet demand.
