Nashville International Airport's control tower has 27 certified air traffic controllers, according to NPR's report on the U.S. air travel crunch — the FAA's target is 52. It's one symptom of a national bottleneck: airlines fly more passengers than ever on fewer flights than 20 years ago, and TSA expects to screen over 18 million travelers during Fourth of July week alone. Nashville's own passenger departures more than doubled between 2015 and 2025.
Congress has appropriated $12.5 billion toward air traffic control modernization, including an $875 million FAA contract for AI-assisted flight coordination software, but Chris Sununu, who heads the trade group Airlines for America, said the industry's biggest threat is "our short-staffed and woefully antiquated air traffic control system." Former acting FAA head Polly Trottenberg called the funding "a good down payment," but not enough for "a system that has been chronically underinvested in for a decade and a half." One traveler summed up flying this year in five words: "Air travel's sucking more lately."
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