FAA to Give Busiest Air Controllers Big Raises in Bid to Improve Safety

More than 2,000 air traffic controllers and other Federal Aviation Administration employees will receive pay raises of up to 20% under a program that Transportation Secretary Samuel K. Skinner said Thursday is aimed at increasing air safety.

The additional pay is to take effect on June 1 at 11 of the FAA’s busiest facilities--those that monitor air traffic over the New York, Chicago, Los Angeles and Oakland areas. FAA officials say they have had difficulty staffing their most complex facilities.

The increases, called “retention allowances,” will go to 2,100 controllers, inspectors and technicians for a five-year experimental period and may be extended to other FAA operations, a Transportation Department news release said. The FAA has about 19,000 controllers and other personnel working in air safety at more than 460 sites.

“Facilities which have the most complex operations, the most chronic staffing difficulties and the most impact on the overall national aviation system are included in the demonstration project,” Skinner said.

He said that the additional pay “will help us achieve our goal of a safer and more efficient national aviation system.”

A majority of the affected employees are air traffic controllers. Others are aviation safety inspectors and technicians who service computers and other equipment used to monitor air traffic.

Facilities where the increases will take effect are the Air Route Traffic Control Centers in Aurora, Ill., and Ronkonkoma, N. Y.; the Chicago O’Hare and Los Angeles international airports; the Oakland and Santa Ana, Calif., and the Westbury, N. Y., terminal radar approach control facilities, and the flight standards district offices in Los Angeles, Teterboro, N. J., and Farmingdale and Valley Stream, N. Y.