Committed to improving the pay for air traffic controllers in the United States of America.
Washington D.C.
Joined May 2025
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Improve ATC retweeted
Today, Ranking Member Rick Larsen expressed his intent to seek the chair of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee—and hit the ground running to create good-paying transportation jobs and improve the nation's infrastructure. Read his full letter: democrats-transportation.hou…
Improve ATC retweeted
I am an en route controller at Houston ARTCC. What frustrates controllers is that aircraft are routed directly through TS all the time. Then pilots then ask us “how are people getting around it?” I took the airline dispatching course at Riddle. I know the dispatchers share 50% of the responsibility for the safety of the flight. To me, sending the pilots the dispatch paperwork with the weather pre flight is just checking a box that alleviates them from liability. At what point are dispatchers going to be responsible for the fact they consistently route aircraft through thunderstorms? When are we going to get to the point of making real safety decisions such as, today isn’t a good day to fly over Florida?
And another thing – The scariest and most unsafe thing I’ve seen in air traffic is when cold fronts come through as a solid squall line well down into the gulf. The Q routes are shut down. Every AC in the air is pushed south into the gulf. Everyone is deviating. I’ve seen a sector get more than 30 handoffs at once. I’ve seen AC deviate so far south they are hugging the FIR (which is non-RADAR with northbound AC coming up from Mexico).
Nothing about flying through thunderstorms is safe. And nothing about every AC in the sky deviating south of a cold front into the gulf is safe. I’ve said it many times before: on weather days there is no way an objective observer could stand in that control room and objectively say that what they are witnessing is a safe operation. Catastrophic loss of life is only because of the sheer skill of the ones behind the RADAR scope and the fact no one dies is NOT the same as a safe ATC operation. And the airlines are 100% complicit in this.
And to that point it isn’t right that ATC pay continues to lag behind inflation year after year. Health insurance goes up more than 10% every year. And every time there is a government shutdown we have to show up for work, used as political leverage, and not get paid until the shutdown ends. Sometimes that means going as long as month on pure savings. We are currently part of the 2027 federal pay freeze with 0% pay raise scheduled.
Improve ATC retweeted
“Why do you keep talking about air traffic controllers?”
#Learjet60
Improve ATC retweeted
The DCA midair collision claimed 67 lives. The NTSB issued 50 safety recommendations to help prevent another tragedy.
But recommendations save lives only when implemented. Every day without action leaves safety risks unaddressed.
Learn more: ntsb.gov/DCAmidair-actions
Improve ATC retweeted
The many air traffic controllers I speak with continue to DM me to say the AI dashboard is of no help to them or they haven’t been trained in it or don’t know when it will be available to them.
So is it really assisting those controllers with decision making? Democrats like @SenDuckworth @SenatorDurbin have a number of reasons they are not jumping to fund $30B in FAA requests for modernization efforts.
Background:
washingtonexaminer.com/news/…
washingtonexaminer.com/polic…
We rolled out “SMART” to assist our air traffic controllers with decision making and it’s already making a BIG difference
✅ 1,143 minutes saved
✅ 6,504 gallons of fuel saved
✅ 14,000+ passengers impacted
READ THE FULL STORY @nypost in the link in replies ⬇️
We asked a U.S. Senate office who wrote the controller pay language in Section 548 of the FY2026 bill, which was worked out in the "four corners" negotiations. Four corners means the top Democrat and Republican on the House and Senate appropriations committees, who settle a bill's final text.
Their answer: "My understanding is that the language was an agreement between NATCA, the appropriations committee staff, and was OK'd by the FAA… they landed where they did because all three parties agreed to the language, in whole."
They also told us they're not sure who wrote the "Administrator's discretion" language, which they called "the biggest piece holding this whole thing up."
That means NATCA (the National Air Traffic Controllers Association), appropriations staff, and the FAA all signed off on a deal that left 2.8 percentage points of controllers' raise up to one official's discretion, and it still hasn't been paid.
Controllers deserve answers from all three.
Improve ATC retweeted
"Air traffic control reform is needed, but it shouldn’t happen through privatization," a reader writes in a letter to the editor. wapo.st/4kjAt4u
Improve ATC retweeted
At @CNBC this morning on commercial #aviation #safety. I was asked whether aviation is safe. Yes, aviation in the U.S. is extraordinarily safe. The biggest risk in transportation is on our roads where 95% of all transportation deaths occur.
With that said, there are significant vulnerabilities in the system that must be addressed. @NTSB has issued nearly 400 aviation safety recs that are awaiting action. We’ve issued some of these repeatedly. ADS-B In and #tech that provides visual and aural alerts to flight crews of traffic on a runway or taxiway and traffic on approach to land are great examples. That last one was first issued in 2000 and just recently reissued in 2024! If implemented, these recs will save lives.
Improve ATC retweeted
The Trump administration once hailed aviation workers as "great professionals." That’s changed. politi.co/3TUti8r
Improve ATC retweeted
“There will always be more to be done,” NATCA president Nick Daniels said of getting the pay bump after months of stalemate (he's also eyeing a 3.9% bump next year). Daniels noted some frustration with controllers having to see the discussions surrounding their pay and “how hard they work” dragged out into the public.
He added, “It's another move in the right direction but ... the sentiment is always going to be varied. When you're working understaffed, you're absolutely overworked, and then you have the economic pressures that are out there, it is long overdue.”
“When there were shutdowns, these workers [controllers, TSA screeners] were hailed as heroes, and when they're being paid again their modest wages, their needs and interests seem to be forgotten.”
subscriber.politicopro.com/a…
Improve ATC retweeted
NEW: I spoke with NATCA’s Nick Daniels about the recent 2.8% pay bump agreement controllers finally reached with FAA — and NATCA is already looking for a similar increase next year. The details in today’s Morning Transpo: subscriber.politicopro.com/n…
Improve ATC has one goal: better pay and benefits for the air traffic controllers who keep our skies safe.
We aren't here to push one idea, one plan, or one group. We also won't promote a union that isn't living up to its purpose. A union is only as effective as its leaders allow it to be, and no organization matters more than the controllers it exists to serve.
Controllers have waited too long for fair pay. That's why every idea and strategy deserves a serious look, and why we'll keep asking hard questions of anyone who claims to speak for this workforce, whether that's the FAA, Congress, or union leadership.
Our loyalty is to controllers. Period.
Your “Modern Skies” is lacking asking for funding for your most valuable asset. CPCs are not able to live near their assigned facilities. Modernize air traffic control pay.
Behind the scenes at DCA 👀✈️
We need Congress to pass the Modern Skies Act and lock in $30 BILLION to finish the job on air traffic control. This would bring YOU:
✅ Modern tech for air traffic controllers
✅ Safer skies, updating airports & towers
✅ Better travel experience, bringing shorter tarmac waits, fewer flight delays and smoother trips
It’s time to upgrade our skies… now I want to take you Inside the Room👇
Controllers have confidence in their ability to keep the NAS safe. They do not have confidence in the FAA. Accountability should go both ways, starting with the retirement data the FAA quietly dropped. #PayThePros
You said @NATCA built this strategy in May 2025. Did NATCA know about the 'sole discretion' language before the bill passed, and did it push back? @SenatorCollins @PattyMurray
The FAA Administrator told Congress he leans into the data. So why did the 2026 Controller Workforce Plan stop reporting how many controllers can retire? For a decade the FAA published that number. The 2025 plan showed newly eligible controllers rising every year: 143, 208, 245, 385. The 2026 plan: nothing. Data driven means publishing the data.
