New Trainees and Air Traffic

Kmaceri

Well-Known Member
Now since the economy is in the ####ter, air traffic has decreased severely. My friend who is an instructor over at JAX said daily traffic was over 9,000 and now it has gone down to 5,000. Now they are putting all the new trainees back in the training for sim work. I wonder if they how other other Enroutes/TRACONS are doing and what they will do with the new trainees since air traffic is now getting lower. Any thoughts?
 
I've wondered about this myself. I think we're on the safe side.

Those old ATCers are still retiring at the rate of about 1500 a year for the next ten years. If traffic levels fall drastically, the FAA can just hold back on future PUBNAT announcements -- i.e. we should all be ok because this is one of the first years for massive hiring. And the FAA has already lined up contractors to train us, so there's really no going back at this point.

It might affect pay, but there's not much we can do about that. The economy can't be in the tank forever, so air traffic is bound to rise again sometime. Take the good with the bad i suppose. At least it's bottoming out while we're on D-side, where we don't make any money to begin with.
 
Thats a good point with all the retiring, but then again maybe most wont retire because of economic situations. I haven't seen the new pubnat come out yet, i think its almost been 2 months.
 
maybe most wont retire because of economic situations.

Two points: with mandatory retirement at 56, they don't have a choice and Federal Govt. retirement benefits aren't as directly tied to the stock market as of private companies.

The FAA is losing 2/3rds of its controllers in the next decade. That's a huge number, and it's unlikely the air travel will fall by a similar amount. Still, some facilities might be more affected than others. In terms of daily operations, I would think smaller facilities would feel the pinch more, but I could be wrong.
 
Thats a good point with all the retiring, but then again maybe most wont retire because of economic situations. I haven't seen the new pubnat come out yet, i think its almost been 2 months.

Rumor goes that there'll be another one in mid-November. I am not responsible if this information is incorrect.
 
aviation careers claims it'll be out this month.

that seems to be the only thing they really ever know.:laff:

Get the Hell out of here. Someone up there in HR told me mid-Nov, and someone else on here verified.

October, now??? Well, we'll know within four days.
 
Get the Hell out of here. Someone up there in HR told me mid-Nov, and someone else on here verified.

October, now??? Well, we'll know within four days.


This is the email I received from my HR person...
"You mentioned about an opening that closed in 2 days, I'm sorry, but we do not have any general public announcements open at this time. You may be looking at an announcement this is meant for a specific group (RMC, VRA, CTO, etc) that you may not qualify for. Please review the announcements that you are looking at to ensure that you meet the basic qualifications prior to submitting your application. We will have a new general public announcement available on our website in mid-November. "

So, looks like mid-November it is!
 
This is the email I received from my HR person...
"You mentioned about an opening that closed in 2 days, I'm sorry, but we do not have any general public announcements open at this time. You may be looking at an announcement this is meant for a specific group (RMC, VRA, CTO, etc) that you may not qualify for. Please review the announcements that you are looking at to ensure that you meet the basic qualifications prior to submitting your application. We will have a new general public announcement available on our website in mid-November. "

So, looks like mid-November it is!

Very well; thanks!
 
Now since the economy is in the ####ter, air traffic has decreased severely. My friend who is an instructor over at JAX said daily traffic was over 9,000 and now it has gone down to 5,000. Now they are putting all the new trainees back in the training for sim work. I wonder if they how other other Enroutes/TRACONS are doing and what they will do with the new trainees since air traffic is now getting lower. Any thoughts?

I'm headed in JAX, and since things are slowin down, i'm guessing this is gonna make it longer for us to get to CPC status. Is this the case, or can we still get to the CPC level in the within the average time frame? Or is this a good thing since it can give trainees more time to study, learn the material, and to improve our skills?
 
you get checked out based on existing traffic so it shouldnt take longer, it may be a blessing for you that traffic will be lighter.
 
you get checked out based on existing traffic so it shouldnt take longer, it may be a blessing for you that traffic will be lighter.

Well I hope that is the case, I won't be headed there until the middle of next yr. and I doubt air traffic will be will be like it use to be anytime so so i'll keep my fingers crossed.
 
also, they will only train so many at a time... so the quicker the trainees ahead of you get qualified the quicker you will move along also.
 
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