Controller Deficit Looms at Albany

COLONIE - Albany International Airport could find itself with a third fewer air traffic controllers than it should have, U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer warned Wednesday.

Seven of the 26 air traffic controllers are eligible to retire this year. But only one new controller is being trained.

The airport is authorized to have 30 controllers. If all seven retire, it could find itself with just 20, 33 percent below its authorized level, Schumer, D-N.Y., said.

Schumer on Wednesday called on the Federal Aviation Administration and the Bush administration to do more to alleviate the potential shortage of air traffic controllers both statewide and nationally.

"Air traffic controllers exist for a reason, to ensure that the planes taking off and landing are doing so safely," Schumer said. "Sadly the FAA continues to short-staff control towers in an effort to control costs while they eschew safety and efficiency."

Schumer is calling on the Bush administration to increase funding by $54 million to recruit and train more controllers. He's also asking the FAA to reverse its cut in the salaries paid to trainees. Controller trainees previously received $30,000 a year. That figure was cut in September to $17,000 a year.

FAA officials have previously said they plan to hire 12,500 controllers in the next decade.

The National Air Traffic Controllers Association said that 100 controllers retired in the past week nationwide. The FAA estimates 7,100 controllers, about 45 percent of the total, will retire in the next eight years.

Statewide, Schumer said Syracuse Hancock International Airport faces a potential controller shortfall of 25 percent, Rochester International Airport a 20 per cent shortfall and Binghamton International Airport a shortfall of as much as 40 percent.

"The FAA hasn't acted quickly enough to recruit new controllers," Schumer said. And he warned that the shortfalls could lead to increased flight delays, close calls between aircraft, "and even disaster," citing an accident in Lexington, Ky., last year in which a plane crashed after taking off from the wrong runway.

Only one controller was on duty at the time, even though two were authorized to be working, Schumer said.

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