The training and requirements to be an ATC are insane, in a extremely thorough way. I highly doubt the Republican administration would be able to find competent replacements among their ‘patriots’.
That said, I doubt further that they would actually care and not just tell people to eat cake, or just privatize the ATC network to some billionaire.
They can pull up some people from the military who run ATC on bases. Those bases don’t have anywhere near the traffic levels that large commercial hubs do, but they might be able to move people around and fill in capacity at smaller airports.
That said, the shutdown is only accelerating issues that have been there since Reagan fired the striking ATC workers. Trump can bloviate about “TRUE PATRIOTS” all he wants. Patriotism can’t direct a plane to the right runway. There’s a certain level of reality that gets in the way. Ending the shutdown won’t change the long term trends. Doing the same plan a second time would only end in disaster. It barely worked the first time; it’s what put us on this long term downwards cycle on the whole ATC system.
Competent is the word here … I have the feeling his current administration replaced 70% of competent people with folks totally unfit for the job.
Examples are FBI’s Patel, or “Mr Health” Kennedy, and the expired Newshost leading the War department…
So I can easily see the experienced air controllers be replaced by some interns sifted out from some other departments, slap a week of training on them and airports are good to go.
Hear me out? Wouldn’t it be so much more effective to get rid of all those DEI hires and replace every ATC tower with a broccoli headed kid who will refer to every plane as a “buttfor”?
The training and requirements to be an ATC are insane, in a extremely thorough way. I highly doubt the Republican administration would be able to find competent replacements among their ‘patriots’.
That said, I doubt further that they would actually care and not just tell people to eat cake, or just privatize the ATC network to some billionaire.
Knowing Trump, he thinks the job is just standing there waving your arms at random
That’s exactly what he does as president
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kzWXdVsHMCM
They can pull up some people from the military who run ATC on bases. Those bases don’t have anywhere near the traffic levels that large commercial hubs do, but they might be able to move people around and fill in capacity at smaller airports.
That said, the shutdown is only accelerating issues that have been there since Reagan fired the striking ATC workers. Trump can bloviate about “TRUE PATRIOTS” all he wants. Patriotism can’t direct a plane to the right runway. There’s a certain level of reality that gets in the way. Ending the shutdown won’t change the long term trends. Doing the same plan a second time would only end in disaster. It barely worked the first time; it’s what put us on this long term downwards cycle on the whole ATC system.
Combat controllers. They served after the Haitian earthquake, directing some 200 flights per day into Port-au-Prince. But they are specialized to work in austere environments. https://www.af.mil/News/Article-Display/Article/117884/combat-controllers-crucial-to-haiti-earthquake-relief/
ATL does over 500 per hour at peak times, and averages 200/hr.
200 flights per day are what Chicago Midway does. Chicago O’Hare does 10 times that much.
Combat controllers can only go so far.
Competent is the word here … I have the feeling his current administration replaced 70% of competent people with folks totally unfit for the job.
Examples are FBI’s Patel, or “Mr Health” Kennedy, and the expired Newshost leading the War department…
So I can easily see the experienced air controllers be replaced by some interns sifted out from some other departments, slap a week of training on them and airports are good to go.
If they privatize it then it’s even easier to strike as they will no longer be held to government standards.
These people aren’t getting paid, he wants them to do slave labor. It costs money to go to work and it’s a stressful job anyway.
He has people who change his diapers.
NO KINGS
Hear me out? Wouldn’t it be so much more effective to get rid of all those DEI hires and replace every ATC tower with a broccoli headed kid who will refer to every plane as a “buttfor”?
What’s a bu. . . wait a minute!
Didn’t Musk try to steal the FAA code for one of his toilet companies to “rewrite”? I thought that was a headline from the past year.
When has competency ever mattered with trump