The FAA is recruiting gamers to fix America’s air traffic controller crisis—and offering $155,000 to do it

The U.S. Transportation Department and Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) launched a campaign to enlist young people to become air traffic controllers as the aviation sector faces a shortage of the skilled employees. A YouTube ad from the Transportation Department published on Friday—set to electric music and featuring clips from games like Fortnite—announced the FAA’s hiring window for air traffic controllers opening April 17, boasting the role paid at least $155,000 after three years of work. 

“To reach the next generation of air traffic controllers, we need to adapt,” U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said in a statement. “This campaign’s innovative communication style and focus on gaming taps into a growing demographic of young adults who have many of the hard skills it takes to be a successful controller.”

U.S. aviation has faced a shortage of air traffic controllers for about a decade, with the number of air traffic controllers falling 6% over the last 10 years, while the number of flights relying on air traffic control systems increased by 10% in the same period, according to a December 2025 report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO). 

The shortage has gained attention following a series of deadly plane crashes, including last month, when an Air Canada jet struck a fire truck on a runway while landing at LaGuardia Airport in New York, killing two people. Authorities are investigating the incident, including how air traffic and ground control personnel were coordinating. One air traffic controller over airport communications appeared to blame himself for the crash, following messages to the fire truck asking it to stop.

“We were dealing with an emergency earlier,” a controller said. “I messed up.”

Replenishing air traffic control roles

Kivanc Avrenli, professor of practice in finance in the Syracuse University Whitman School of Management who specializes in aviation safety, told Fortune that he sees seeking air traffic controllers from a talent pool of video game fans is logical, given the large cache of applicants it could provide. 

Gaming can help reduce reaction time and improve multitasking and spatial awareness, but does not account for the life-or-death nature of actual air traffic control work, Avrenli noted.

“There is simply no ‘undo’ or ‘reset’ button, and it requires sustained attention for several continuous hours,” he said. “Gaming does not fully replicate these challenges.”

The Transportation Department’s Gen Z hiring push comes amid broader effort for the federal government to attract young people to its workforce. The Office of Personnel Management launched the Early Career Talent Network last month for entry-level workers to take on finance, human resources, engineering, project management, and procurement roles in government.

To be sure, the FAA’s efforts to hire air traffic controllers was already seeing early results. It slightly exceeded its goal of hiring 2,000 new controllers in fiscal 2025, following hiring 1,800 controllers in 2024, which was also above its target. The Transportation Department is seeking $95.4 million to hire 2,300 controllers in the next year, though the agency is still 3,500 air traffic controllers short of its targeted staffing levels.

Despite thousands of applicants for air traffic control roles, only about 2% of applicants are successful in becoming certified controllers as a result of a long vetting process requiring between two and five years, meaning even if recruitment increases, it could take years for the air traffic control workforce to replenish itself.

“I do believe recruiting gamers is a reasonable idea,” Avrenli said. “But it is not a quick fix, as training and certifying controllers still take time.”