Air Controllers Hoping to Land a Few Chairs

After being plagued for years by a shortage of controllers, Chicago’s air traffic control center has enough people, but members of the controllers union said Wednesday there’s another problem: not enough chairs.

During one shift last week at the Chicago Air Route Traffic Control Center in suburban Aurora, one controller sat on a wooden box because no more chairs were available, a union spokesman said.

The lack of chairs poses no danger, union and Federal Aviation Administration officials said, but an FAA spokesman said there is a nationwide problem with broken chairs.