PASS National on FAA Workforce Plan, New Techs and System Upgrades

Dave Spero, National President of the Professional Aviation Safety Specialists, joined the America's Work Force Union Podcast for an update on the aviation technical workforce — the behind-the-scenes specialists who maintain, certify and repair the electronic systems, radar, navigation aids and communications infrastructure that keep the air traffic control system functioning.

Spero began by discussing the workforce plan that Congress required the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to submit. In May, the agency delivered a plan that commits to hiring 750 new airway transportation systems specialists over the next two years and includes a provision for hiring in advance of retirements. He also addressed a $12 billion investment in what the FAA calls a Brand New Air Traffic Control System, the training gap that this upgrade has exposed, and the emerging challenge of unmanned aerial systems regulation and oversight, which aviation safety inspectors are not yet fully equipped to handle.

• Congress required the FAA to submit an ATSS workforce plan as part of January's appropriations bill. The plan, delivered in May, commits to hiring 750 new electronic technicians over two years. It also establishes a distinction between certified professional technicians and trainees, as well as a provision allowing the agency to hire in advance of retirements. That final item addresses the longstanding problem of one person absorbing both a full workload and new employee training when a colleague retires after 40 years.
• The FAA has received $12 billion to upgrade to a brand new Air Traffic Control System, replacing radar systems, communication systems and telecommunications infrastructure across the country. Spero said the pace of installation is creating a training gap. Contractors are currently maintaining some newly installed equipment because PASS technicians have not yet been trained on it, and are advocating for advanced training that would allow PASS members to accelerate installation timelines and take ownership of long-term system maintenance from the start.
• Aviation safety inspector workforce plans show flat hiring projections over the next 10 years at a moment when the FAA is simultaneously facing the emergence of unmanned aerial systems regulation under Part 108. Spero described UAS oversight as a new frontier requiring significant expertise, training and staffing that the current inspector projections do not account for, making the drone challenge the next major workforce fight after the ATSS technician battle.

The People Behind the Scenes Who Keep Aviation Safe

Dave Spero has been making the case for the aviation technical workforce on this show for years. Airway Transportation Systems Specialists — ATSS technicians — are the workers who maintain, certify and repair the electronic systems that air traffic control depends on. This includes radar, navigation aids, communications equipment, automation systems and the flashing lights on airfields that guide pilots safely to the ground. They are not the controllers who give instructions to pilots. They are the people who make sure the equipment the controllers use actually works.

For years, the workforce has been understaffed, underfunded and inadequately planned for. That may be changing.

A Workforce Plan — Finally

Congress included a provision in January's appropriations bill requiring the FAA to submit a workforce plan to Congress within 60 days of the president's budget, which came in late March. In May, the FAA delivered what Spero called a meaningful step forward. The plan commits to hiring 750 new ATSS technicians over the next two years. It draws a formal line between certified professional technicians and trainees — establishing who is authorized to work on equipment versus who is still learning. And it includes a provision allowing the FAA to hire in advance of retirements, rather than waiting until a 40-year veteran walks out the door, leaving one remaining colleague to absorb both the full workload and the responsibility of training a new hire.

Spero credited years of advocacy to the U.S. Congress and the FAA for getting to this point. He was also careful not to overstate what was achieved. The math behind the FAA's internal staffing model — what they call the tech ops staffing model — is not something PASS fully trusts yet. The union has a specialist working on that team and will continue pushing to refine the algorithms that determine how many technicians are actually needed. The 750 number may not be enough. But having a plan at all, with Congressional accountability built in, is a foundation that did not exist before.

The Open Advertisement and a Call to Action

The FAA currently has an open job advertisement for ATSS technicians — officially listed as 2101 electronic technicians. Spero extended a direct invitation to anyone with the right background to apply. Candidates with military experience in navigational aids, radar and electronic systems are particularly well-positioned. The path from hire to full certification takes approximately two to three years, depending on background. It involves formal schooling, on-the-job training and certification examinations across multiple systems. Spero noted that in his own career as a technician, he carried approximately 20 certifications across various system types. It is demanding work — and the FAA is hiring.

A $12 Billion Upgrade and a Training Gap

Congress has provided $12 billion for what the FAA is calling the brand new Air Traffic Control System — replacing radar, communication and telecommunications infrastructure at centers, Terminal Radar Approach Control (TRACON) and towers across the country. Spero described the upgrade effort as moving quickly and praised the ambition behind it. He also identified a significant gap.

The installation is outpacing the training of the PASS technicians who will be responsible for maintaining those systems. Currently, some of the newly installed equipment is being maintained by the contractors who installed it because ATSS technicians have not yet been trained to handle it. Spero described this as an avoidable problem — and an opportunity. If PASS members are trained on the new systems in advance of installation, they can accelerate the implementation timeline rather than creating a bottleneck, and they can take ownership of long-term care from the moment a system goes live, rather than transitioning from contractor to technician months or years later. He said he has been advocating strongly with the FAA to get ahead of this before the logjam arrives.

Drones, Inspectors and the Next Frontier

Spero raised a second workforce battle that is developing alongside the technician fight. Aviation safety inspectors — a separate workforce from ATSS technicians — investigate accidents and incidents, secure scenes when the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is not immediately on scene, and gather initial data on which accident investigations depend. Their workforce plan, released recently, projects flat hiring over the next 10 years.

Spero said that projection is incompatible with what is coming. Unmanned aerial systems — drones — are regulated under Part 108 and represent a genuinely new frontier in aviation oversight. Regulating, inspecting and responding to incidents involving Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) requires expertise, training and staffing that do not currently exist at an adequate scale within the inspector workforce. The near-miss incidents that are increasingly common in the news are a preview of what an understaffed, undertrained inspector corps will face as drone traffic grows. Flat hiring over the next decade is, in Spero's assessment, not the right answer.

He closed by describing what it is actually like to work on an active airfield. It’s a different kind of spatial awareness than anything most people encounter, where the orientation cues that work on roads do not apply and where the consequences of a lapse are immediate. PASS members navigate that environment every day. Making sure they have the training, the numbers and the equipment to do it safely is the mission he keeps coming back to make the case for.

More information on PASS National is available at passnational.org.

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