President Donald Trump’s chief transport lackey is going after gamers to overcome his shortage of air traffic controllers.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy has launched an unusual advertising campaign on YouTube telling would-be video game fans: “You’ve been training for this.”
The Federal Aviation Administration has been dealing with a shortage of controllers for years, raising safety concerns. The crisis came into focus in the fall, when the government shutdown prevented staff from being paid, leading to a sharp drop in the number of available workers and a further spike in safety fears.
Duffy’s new push uses a heady blend of upbeat songs, heaps of praise, and the chance of a six-figure salary to lure in gamers.
His department is just the latest branch of government to go after the demographic, with the Department of Homeland Security and the military already trying to tap into it.
“To reach the next generation of air traffic controllers, we need to adapt,” Duffy said in a statement online.
He said the move “taps into a growing demographic of young adults who have many of the hard skills it takes to be a successful controller.”
The New York Times reported that experts have raised concerns about whether the move will do enough to overcome the shortage.
“When you bring on someone who has gaming experience, particularly with air traffic control, they have an edge up,” said former senior FAA air safety official Michael O’Donnell. “They’re coming in with a skill set. But it doesn’t replace aptitude, or discipline, or decision making under pressure.”
According to a U.S. Government Accountability Office report in January, the past decade has seen a 10 percent increase in the number of flights requiring air traffic control, while the number of controllers has decreased by 6 percent in the same timeframe.
Hiring has been tough. According to the GAO, only about 2 percent of applicants become controllers, while the Times reports that only 300 people have been hired for the role nationwide since 2024.
The FAA previously said that 14,663 controllers constitute a full workforce. The current number is reported to be a little more than 11,000.
The FAA’s human resources director, Heather Fernuik, told the Times she was optimistic. “We’re really going to start to see gains about two and a half to three years from now.”
In October, father-of-nine Duffy was taking a very different tone.
At the height of the shutdown, when controllers were going unpaid, many stopped turning up for work to earn income through second jobs.
Speaking to Fox Business Network at the time, he called those staff “problem children” and said, “If we have some of our staff that aren’t dedicated like we need, we’re going to let them go.”
Days before, he also suggested that absent staff wouldn’t get back pay once the shutdown ended.
“When you come to work you get paid,” Duffy said, according to BBC. “If you don’t come to work, you don’t get paid. That’s the way we’re going to do it.”
Last month, an Air Canada plane collided with a fire truck at LaGuardia Airport, resulting in the deaths of two pilots. Meanwhile, various near misses have kept concerns high in the wake of the January 2025 Washington D.C. mid-air collision that killed 67 people.
