Alarm! Danger! GenZ Gamers playing with airplanes!

I made those headlines up, but they do capture the general gist of some responses to the FAA’s recent ATC hiring push project, which has seen them recruiting from the “gamer” pool. Before we look at that, what it means, and whether such concern is warranted, let’s take a quick review of the current FAA ATC situation to see what led to this.

The Current Situation

Despite over fifty percent of the world’s airports being situated upon the USA landmass, and despite the USA holding bragging rights to the origins of ATC as we now know it, the FAA has been facing a controller shortage for over a decade leading to some fairly major safety concerns.

The shortage sat at roughly 2,500 to 3,500 air traffic controllers in 2025. To safely and efficiently manage the system at full capacity it requires around 12,563 certified ATC. With limited numbers, to prevent serious reductions in safety, the only option is reduction in efficiency and that means restricted airspace capacity and with that, often significant delays as flow must be controlled to limit overloading the controllers. At times, the USA has seen full ground stops in response to staff shortages. Despite this though, controllers have still been experiencing significant overloading.

The eleven or so thousand controllers have been facing critical fatigue levels due to the requirement to work overtime in order to prevent shutdowns. It reached levels that led to union intervention to ensure adequate rest between shifts. NATCA set a minimum 10 hour rest period between shifts and 12 hours before and after midnight shifts, but controllers were also rostered for mandatory 6 day weeks, often with up to 8 hour shifts in overtime being implemented.

A study carried out in 2015, prior to the minimum rest adjustments, but when ATC shortages were arguably lower, showed that on average controllers were achieving just 5.8 hours of sleep per day over the course of a working week, and as littler as 3.1 hours before midnight shifts. Even with minimum rest periods implemented since, the staff deficits and working hour requirements have been so persistent, time to fully restore sleep levels has been lacking and chronic fatigue is a continuing concern amongst the ATC body.

Since pre-Covid traffic levels have been restored, and in many cases exceeded, the rate of incidents and potential “near misses has risen, particularly at some of the major international airports. While few investigation reports specifically cite controller fatigue as a causal factor, several do mention staff shortages leading to controllers working multiple sectors as a determinant.

One such example is the February 2023 runway incursion and overflight incident at KAUS/Austin airport, Texas, involving a Southwest 737and FedEx 767. One controller and one operations supervisor were working at the time, with the controller handling local control west and east combined, and the supervisor handing ground control west and east, clearance delivery and tower oversight positions combined. Likewise, the tragic accident involving an Air Canada flight and a fire truck at KLGA/La Guardia currently investigation may show that the controller on duty was working a combination of sectors – something that, if the case, would contradict standard operating procedures in force at the airport since an accident in 1997, which led to to the requirement that positions at LaGuardia tower would not be consolidated to one prior to midnight local time or 90 minutes after the start of the shift.

What it looks like in numbers

Across the USA, some 44,000 flights are handled daily. These include passengers, freight, general aviation, and in some areas military as well. There are a total of 313 facilities across the FAA network – 46 are en-route, or TRACON facilities (terminal radar approach control). Facilities are ranked on a scale which effectively looks at complexity and traffic levels. The scale is from 4 to 12 – 10, 11 and 12 relate to the Tower control facilities at major airports.

While there is an overall shortage of certified controllers, there is also a specific shortage in operational supervisors (OS) and traffic management coordinators (TMC). A TMC focuses on strategic, macro-level traffic flow, volume and system-wide management, while the OS are responsible for the tactical level of immediate shift, safety oversight, and active staffing management within the physical control room operations.

With increasing challenges including rising congestion levels, further exasperated by more frequent and intense severe weather conditions, this results in further pressures for ATC. A review in 2024 showed that the New York Terminal Radar Approach Control (TRACON) – the one that handles the airspace linking into one of the most congested and complex metropolitan areas within the USA – was operating at just 54% of the recommended staffing levels.

In the summer of 2022, just under 41,500 flight delays in the New York airports alone were attributed to staffing levels, and 20 of the 26 critical ATC facilities were staffed below the 85% threshold agreed between NATCA and the FAA in a previous attempt to manage staffing levels. This included the likes of KMIA/Miami, KORD/Chicago, KDFW/Dallas-Fort Worth and KATL/Atlanta – some of the USA’s most complex and busy international airports.

So, as we have established, the FAA has a big ATC shortage issue, and because of this a big delay issue, and at times a big safety issue. The answer is (and has been for a while) to recruit more.

But… The Problem with Recruitment

Recruitment has dropped by around 6% over the last decade and the requirement for controllers has increased, but in addition to that, hiring is only the first hurdle to overcome. In fact, in some years, the FAA has actually hit its targets. The bigger problem lies in how long it takes to train up a certified controller – this can be up to 5 years, and just for the initial certification. Furthermore, whether a controller actually males it through to the certified stage is another obstacle, because the training is intense, challenging and the pressure of the job further adds to this.

One report suggests that while 60-70% of applicants pass the initial screening, which involves basic aptitude testing, only about 41% of those achieve the ‘well-qualified’ standard which will result in them moving forwards. Of these, 30-50% wash out during the academy and on the job training phases, meaning as few as 10% might ultimately become certified, and this can be as low as 2%.

So, getting applicants through the doors is not the only, or arguably, the biggest problem. Whether the applicants can complete the training might be. Which leads us to the FAA project, because one idea is to employ people who already have the aptitude and some elements of the skill set required to get through the training. An idea which is good on paper, but causing some consternation, at least with some people.

How silly is this plan?

In April 2026, the Transportation Department put out an advert as part of their hiring campaign which featured ‘electric music and clips from Fortnite’. The ad was aimed directly at Gen Z gamers, and it worked because it led to a big increase in applicants, and enabled them to hit 94% of their hiring goal for the period.

As we saw though, hiring is obstacle number one – getting trainees through the process is the greater challenge, and the biggest complaint aimed at this project seems to be whether or not these new recruits will really be up to the task. As one person suggested “There is simply no ‘undo’ or ‘reset’ button, and it requires sustained attention for several continuous hours. Gaming does not fully replicate these challenges.” Or as another put it – “If they f*** up people die. They can’t just restart a new game.”

So, how likely is it gamers might be more successful at passing the rigorous training controllers undergo?

This isn’t the first time transferable skills have been utilised across industries. Covid saw a huge number of airline pilots laid off, and Network Rail – the UK government owned railway managing company – saw a big opportunity. They had long been struggling to both recruit signallers but also get them through the training and up to full certification. Airline pilots possess a skill set requiring similar aptitudes and competencies to the signaller role and so Network Rail purposefully sought to recruit redundant pilots. The results were good – while the required training was the same, the pilot skill set enabled them to pass the initial training to a high standard, and to undergo the on the job training more rapidly. Unfortunately, the vast majority left back to airlines, but initial stats seemed good.

Hiring based on transferable skill sets is not a new idea, and it does work, so to see if this idea is ultimately silly or not requires us to look at the skill sets required for air traffic controllers, and to consider whether or not gamers might possess an aptitude for these.

Is it the right skill set?

ICAO doc 10056 is a good place to start. Like pilots, controllers are trained to a set of competencies which are designed to increases resilience through the utilisation of specific technical skills as well as non-technical skills, CRM and human factors awareness. There are tent ICAO defined competencies for air traffic controllers: Situational Awareness, Traffic and capacity management, Separation and conflict resolution, Communication, Coordination, Management of non-routine situations, Problem-solving and decision making, Self-management and continuous development, Workload management and Teamwork.

Each of the competencies is further defined by observable behaviours (OBs) which are the performance criteria a controller is measured against. For example, Separation and conflict resolution includes OBs such as ‘identifies traffic conflict’, ‘selects most appropriate separation method’, ‘applies appropriate separation and spacing’ etc. as just a few examples. If you are a pilot, then the non-tech competencies probably don’t look too dissimilar to our own, and ones like Separation and conflict resolution ultimately are along the lines of our flight path management and application of procedures (tech) competencies when we apply the context of the individual roles to them.

I looked for various reports on the areas ATC candidates struggle most with during training, and I am not quoting any specific reports here since I did not find any, but the areas that were mentioned the most seemed to be dynamic spatial reasoning and split-second multi-tasking. Translating a 2D radar screen into a 3D mental picture, all the while handling a dynamic situation requiring fast interpretation of large amounts of information. In the pilot role, the “Command Competencies” – and by that I mean the ones most developed in experienced pilots, and actioned by the captain more so than the first officer such as workload management and complex decision making – are the ones less experienced pilots tend to struggle with, so this makes sense for air traffic controllers.

This, combined with often intense pressure could lead rapidly to cognitive overload, all of which seem likely reasons for the high attrition rates during training. They are not skills that can be quickly picked up without practice and a shift in attitude.

Gamers got Game

The ability to monitor large datasets for prolonged periods, spotting patterns and strategically managing them, often through rapid decision making, are all skills that gamers can develop, along with being able to mentally shifting between the 2D presentation to a 3D mental model. Combine this with skills required in complex, multi-player games – tactical teamwork and coordination, resilience under pressure, leadership and communication – and gamers do potentially have at least some level of practice and application, albeit generically, of the competencies which controllers utilise.

Additionally, and perhaps most importantly, the dynamic spatial reasoning and rapid workload management of multiple tasks in parallel – areas which ATC candidates often struggle with – are ones the most successful gamers often excel at, and as importantly are some of the features of gaming which offer the appeal. This possibly explains why so many gamers did apply for the ATC program.

Complex, fast-paced games require several cognitive and behavioural skills which overlap or at least touch on the skills ATC require – processing of simultaneous information streams and attention switching, spatial reasoning and prioritisation and task management, all in rapidly changing situations. At the end of the day, this is just my take on it, I’m not a gamer and I’m not an air traffic controller, and only time will tell whether or not this program proves a success.

To the “nay-sayers” spouting gamer stereotypes as reasons why it couldn’t possibly, I would suggest maybe broadening your mind, reading up a bit on what it all involves, and wait and see. We might just be (massively) surprised.