FAA Levels Up Recruiting: Gamers Targeted for Air Traffic Control Jobs

FAA Levels Up Recruiting: Gamers Targeted for Air Traffic Control Jobs

The Federal Aviation Administration is looking for a few good gamers to hire as air traffic controllers.

In a new ad campaign, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is explicitly calling for gamers to apply for jobs in air traffic control when its hiring window opens next week.

The Xbox one logo appears at the start of the video before dissolving into a montage that cuts between images of men playing various online computer games and people, including women, in air traffic control towers looking at their own computers.

“You’ve been training for this,” the ad says.

The ad also highlights the salary on offer to controllers, saying it is $155,000 (£115,000) after three years of work.

🚨👀 Watch this…

YOU can be the future of air traffic control

It’s not a GAME, its a CAREER

Applications open April 17th at Midnight @FAANews pic.twitter.com/JVpgCIeF58

— Secretary Sean Duffy (@SecDuffy) April 10, 2026

Whoever came up with the ad campaign should get a bonus. The recruitment effort resulted in over 6,000 applications for these positions.

The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration received 6,000 applications for air traffic control roles in the last 12 hours, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said on Friday.

…The U.S. air traffic control system in the U.S. is stretched thin. Many controllers are working mandatory overtime ​and six-day weeks and the FAA’s air traffic control training academy ⁠faces serious issues with retaining students.

The Trump administration is aiming to recruit gamers for air traffic control positions, Duffy said.

“Experts” are questioning the wisdom of this move.

But while air traffic experts noted gamers have potentially valuable skills, some questioned whether the focused recruiting effort will sufficiently address the agency’s wider air traffic staffing problems.

“When you bring on someone who has gaming experience, particularly with air traffic control, they have an edge up,” said Michael O’Donnell, an aerospace consultant who previously worked as a senior F.A.A. official focused on air traffic safety. “They’re coming in with a skill set. But it doesn’t replace aptitude, or discipline, or decision making under pressure.”

The government has struggled for over a decade to recruit enough air traffic controllers. Despite the Trump administration’s efforts to “supercharge” hiring efforts, in Mr. Duffy’s words, the F.A.A. has increased its ranks of fully certified controllers by 300 since September 2024, bringing the total number to more than 11,000 nationally. That is still thousands short of the 14,663 positions the agency said constituted full staffing in an August 2025 report.

Agency officials blame a combination of attrition, the length of time that it takes to train controllers, and historically high washout rate for the slow progress. But they also claim to be making progress on those fronts that they believe, in time, will bear fruit.

But at least they aren’t being hired (or not) strictly based on their race, gender identity, or religious affiliation.

For an agency long plagued by staffing shortages, the FAA’s gamer-focused recruitment push looks less like a gimmick and more like a rare moment of practical thinking.

No, gaming alone doesn’t replace discipline or judgment. However, targeting people already wired for rapid decision-making and complex task management is a far more sensible strategy than the bureaucratic drift of recent years.

The hand-wringing from “experts” ignores the obvious: what we’ve been doing hasn’t worked. If this approach helps refill the ranks based on ability rather than identity boxes, and keeps planes moving safely, then it’s a welcome course correction.

Again, kudos to the creative team who developed this campaign.

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