In the gig economy, new jobs are often created but one caught my attention in the last week of March. The partial government shutdown was affecting the country, especially at airports. TSA agents were not getting paid, so some agents quit while others didn’t show up to work. With bills to pay, many TSA agents drove Ubers, did DoorDash deliveries, or whatever they could to replace their income. Meanwhile, the lines to get through security grew longer and longer. Like waiting for rides at Disney World, the lines looped around and around until some airports extended the lines outside to the busy areas where cars drive through to pick up passengers.

When wait times at Atlanta’s airport exceeded four hours, some travelers turned to so-called professional line-sitters. Line-sitters were charging between 25 and 50 per hour (plus water and snacks) to hold someone’s place in the queue. This kind of service wasn’t for everyone since traveling is already expensive. Airfares have increased even more since the war in Iran has driven up oil and gas prices and unfortunately, the high cost of travel isn’t likely to get much better for a long time. However, on the good news front, wait times at the Colorado Springs airport remain under 15 minutes.

There are nearly 65,000 TSA workers but during the shutdown, hundreds quit. Working long hours without pay wasn’t feasible and there was no assurance that they would eventually receive all of their back pay. Each day, some TSA agents didn’t report to work and at the worst times, up to 11% of the TSA workforce wasn’t working. As conditions deteriorated, attention also focused on the difficult working conditions of air traffic controllers.

Across the country, there are approximately 14,000 air traffic controllers employed by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). Since 2010, there has been a shortage of air traffic controllers and the situation continues to get worse. Between 2010 and 2014, there was a 13% decline in the number of air traffic controllers. Despite the FAA’s push to hire and train more, there is still a shortfall of around 3,500 controllers.

At any given time, there are approximately 4,000 trainees for these demanding and stressful jobs. Training begins with aptitude tests, medical evaluations, and security approvals. Then, candidates attend the FAA academy in Oklahoma for 4-6 months of training. Next, there’s on-the-job training and more evaluation and testing. The entire onboarding and training can take up to 6 years. Studies show that less than 5% of initial applicants complete the entire process so the FAA is continually trying to make the process faster and more effective.

To that end, partnerships have been created with educational institutions to increase training opportunities for future air traffic controllers. In Windsor, Colorado, Aims Community College has been one of 30 American universities that offer basic air traffic curriculum. Windsor is between Greeley and Fort Collins so there’s a large geographic reach for student enrollment. Recently, Aims Community College was approved to offer enhanced training. This enables students to skip the FAA Academy training in Oklahoma and jump straight to training in the tower which is the last step in the training process. Currently, there are 8 instructors at Aims who teach this curriculum and it was formally certified in January by the FAA. Aims is now the 11th institution in the country to offer the enhanced curriculum and the only one in Colorado.

In another push to address the shortfall of air traffic controllers, the FAA is recruiting young adults with gaming backgrounds and skills. The theory is that gamers have good hand-eye coordination, are able to make decisions quickly, and can maintain their focus for many hours without losing concentration and coordination. It turns out that during work breaks, older air traffic controllers often read the news while younger employees prefer to play games on Xbox, so some managers have purchased Xbox systems for employees to use in break rooms.

Hopefully, these training programs can accelerate the numbers of competent air traffic controllers. Equally as important is the assurance going forward that TSA agents will be paid for their hard work no matter what the political pressures may be. A fair day’s wage for a hard day’s work. Then, the friendly skies will stay that way for the foreseeable future.