AMERIKA

Crisis averted after all air traffic controllers resign at 'hugely important' airport

Carl Gibson,

 AlterNet
January 31, 2025 

A plane flies next to an air traffic control near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, in the aftermath of the collision of American Eagle flight 5342 and a Black Hawk helicopter that crashed into the Potomac River, in Arlington, Virginia, U.S., January 30, 2025. REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein

Update: The resignations were rescinded at the last minute following tense contract negotiations, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.

Original: One California airport is now without any air traffic controllers, and it's unclear when the airport will be able to replace them.

The San Francisco Chronicle reported Thursday that beginning this weekend, the San Carlos Airport, which lies along the final approach to San Francisco International Airport (SFO), will no longer have anyone manning its control tower. The resignations came after the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) reassigned controllers' contracts to a firm that pays less.

Airport manager Gretchen Kelly said "understandably, all current controllers have declined [the firm's new] offers." The proposed compensation packages for air traffic controllers reportedly did not account for the Bay Area having the highest cost of living in the nation, which is roughly 18% higher than the national average. The region has had the highest cost of living in the U.S. for six consecutive years, with the San Jose and Napa areas close behind.

San Carlos Flight Center owner Alessandro Franco said air traffic control at the airport is "hugely important" due to its proximity to SFO and its typically busy airspace. Aircraft approaching the San Carlos Airport alternates between communicating with air traffic controllers at San Carlos and those at SFO. Now, he's worried the resignation of controllers will mean there is "another layer of safety that’s not going to be present."

"We’re a mile or two off the final approaches to SFO — it’s a complex space," Franco told the Chronicle. "This is a situation that puts us in limbo next to these busy airports."

Kelly has asked the FAA for additional staffing help for the San Carlos control tower, but her request was refused. Other airports in California are dealing with chronic shortages of air traffic controllers, which has become a worsening problem over the years. The Chico Airport, which the Chronicle noted was a "hub" for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, now has just one controller.

The resignation of the San Carlos air traffic controllers comes on the heels of a deadly crash at the Washington D.C. National Airport involving an American Airlines regional jet and a Black Hawk U.S. Army helicopter, with 67 presumed dead from the incident. Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), who used to pilot Black Hawk helicopters as a combat veteran in Iraq, said that letters President Donald Trump's administration sent to federal workers this week asking them to quit their jobs could be partially to blame for the crash.

Click here to read the Chronicle's report