More than 1,200 employees, including senior leaders and technical experts, have left the Federal Aviation Administration under the Trump administration’s deferred-resignation program, The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday.
The resignations and retirements are impacting divisions across the agency, including air traffic, legal matters and space launches, according to the report. However, the FAA says the departures won’t affect safety-critical functions, the Journal reported.
The Journal cited a May 7 internal presentation to senior FAA management which said, “Employees are departing the agency in mass quantities across all skill levels.”
The departures account for 3% of the FAA’s total workforce of some 46,000 employees, according to the report. “Frontline safety personnel” are not eligible for the resignation program, the Journal reported.
Hundreds of probationary FAA employees were laid off earlier this year and subsequently rehired. Further, a spokesperson told the Journal that the FAA can hire new talent.
“We are refreshing an organization that is built for the future,” the spokesperson told the Journal.
For example, the FAA and National Air Traffic Controllers Association earlier this month agreed to a limited-time incentive package to recruit and retain controllers.
The Journal’s report comes days after the FAA delayed all departures at Teterboro Airport in New Jersey because of staffing issues.
The ground delay came amid recent chronic delays and cancellations at Newark Liberty International Airport, New Jersey’s largest airport, which have put a spotlight on a shortage of air traffic controllers.
The FAA on May 20 issued an interim order that offered a short-term fix to problems at the Newark airport that includes reducing the flight arrival and departure rates to 28 each per hour until construction of a runway is completed June 15. After June 15, the number of arrival and departure flights will be limited to 34 each per hour on weekdays.
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