Indiscriminate mass layoffs of staff is always the best way to make an enterprise (or agency) more efficient and mission-driven. Said nobody, ever.
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Firing probationary Tech Ops people is stupid even on the Trump scale of stupid. Tech Ops is always understaffed because ATC gets the focus. It’s hard to find and hire qualified techs, and when they’re finally on board it takes a few years to learn and become certified on all the systems they’re expected to support. Which, it shouldn’t be necessary to note, is pretty much all the stuff that ATC uses to do their jobs, plus all the ground-based systems and NAVAIDs pilots depend on.
There no rational basis for this at all - it’s just vandalism, and it’s going to derogate the performance of the aviation system through reduced inspections and maintenance, more outages, and longer times for return-to-service.
Did I mention how stupid this is?
(And my opinion is based on 20 years of ATC and ATC systems engineering plus 20 years of ATC accident and incident investigations. You can trust me on this - attacking Tech Ops is stupid.)
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Everyone I know (including people who work or worked for the FAA) think the FAA is broken. But, everyone also seems to think it is necessary. We need to fix it. Hitting it with a sledge hammer is not going to fix it.
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Perhaps but the number of light aircraft crashes that make the news can be window-dressed for public approval without causing massive flight delays at hubs. And they can designate private individuals to ramp check aircraft not unlike the way DPEs perform flight tests on behalf of the FAA.
“Hey Barney Fife, is that a leaky quick-drain over there?”
I’ve said it before “run fast and break things, but don’t break the heart-lung machine!!”
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Layoffs hit Chevron, Nissan, Siemens, Meta, Pitney Bowes, etc.
Why is it news that federal agencies have to trim back inefficiencies and duplication?
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Well you are dealing with entrenched Govt union rules that make many employees hard to fire - so the probationary ones are not only newer (and likely less experienced) but also easier to terminate. Basically they are doing what needs to be done (first steps) to trim a bloated government and its agencies. I and many believe it’s LONG overdue.
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No doubt a lot of bloat in the FAA, just like every other federal agency. Archaic computer systems? Sure. Short-staffed on controllers? For the core 30, most definitely. But let’s not fool ourselves here until we put down more pavement and specifically in the northeast, you can only move so many airplanes at airports like LGA, EWR, JFK, BOS and the list goes on. Contract out all FAA facilities level 6 and below, cut upper and middle-management staffing, bring on user fees. But if you’re gonna trim the fat do it wisely with a scalpel instead of mass firings.
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Why are you yelling? Show some respect.
There are no sacred cows when it comes time to trim the fat. We have all seen this at the FAA. My FSDO has been on a “work from home” or “work from Home Depot while shopping for xyz” since 9/11/2011. Yes, for the last 24 years! Innovation at the FAA? Look at the small engine directorate. No innovation allowed. That is a big reason why we are still flying air cooled engines from the 30’s. Regulation by reference? If the FAA writes a paragraph in the FAA Order 8900.1 FSIMS and refers to your Experimental Amateur Built Aircraft ops limitations then you must do it even though the first paragraph says, "except for “Experimental Amateur Built Aircraft”. The “Regulation by Reference” is a way to get around notifying the public and getting comments from us via the NPRM laws. Third class medicals? Why? Basic Med had to be forced on the FAA same with the Pilot’s Bill of Rights. 800 Independence has become a giant empty warehouse. DEI was the final straw. Read this if you have low blood pressure. https://www.faa.gov/regulations_policies/rulemaking/committees/documents/media/WIAAB_Recommendations_Report_March_2022.pdf
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An across the board termination of probationary employees, many of whom are now waaaay more talented than many current tenured employees, will only dilute the talent at the FAA further. You want to trim the fat? You use a sharp knife, not an axe.
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Government Union rules dictate this approach.
LOL, You lost all credibility when you called Trump stupid… Nope, far from it - he’s crazy like a fox and - although he says some seemingly stupid/silly things - he’s playing 3D chess. Look at how the seemingly silly things he’s said about Greenland, the Panama canal and Gaza have caused: 1) Greenland to express a desire for strategic economic/military partnership with the U.S.; 2) Panama to terminate the Chinese canal management contract; 3) Prompted Egypt to propose a Gaza plan (because they do NOT want the U.S. there). Sure mistakes will be made - but the end goal of an even slightly more efficient Federal government and reduced costs is well worth it and I and many Americans are cheering it on!
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The FAA is a bloated bureauacracy along with likely every government agency. With the Fed being $38 trillion in debt with interest accruing at $2.3 billion per day…it’s time to reduce headcount. Thankfully, after decades of non-action by prior administrations - President Trump has a team that is doing the hard lifting.
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I’ll say something favorable about the FAA. I don’t disagree with cutting costs and improving management but still the FAA is highly regarded worldwide for its role in promoting aviation safety, efficiency, and innovation. Compared to similar agencies in other nations, the FAA is often seen as a leader in aviation safety and regulatory practices. One French pilot remarked to me some years ago that he wished the FAA ran aviation around the world.
Having held various foreign pilot licenses plus the FAA ATP and CFI airman certificates here are some of my observations and encounters around the world:
• FAA credit card size airman certificate starting over 20 years ago while most countries today still have a thick passport size pilot license with multiple signatures and ink stamps. One South African examiner said to me: “That’s all you have?”
• First in WAAS – took other nations 6-12 years to catch up
• FAA’s reasonable approach to airman certification versus nine written tests in many countries
• SEL up to 12,500 lbs versus a signoff on your license for any different airplane including going from a 150 to a 152
• Foreign medical examinations that make you feel like you mistakenly got on the line for astronaut certification
• All service bulletins treated as mandatory Ads
• Yearly radio licenses and aircraft registrations costing hundreds of dollars
• Mandatory 25-, 50-hr and 100-hr inspections even if your aircraft is not Part 135
• Yearly submission of your aircraft and personal logbooks to the governing authority
I could go on, but I do hope in four years that the FAA will be even better than it already is in the eyes of many around the world.
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That’s not what DOGE’s flying monkeys are doing. That would actually require some thought. This is just blind hacking. If the CEO of a public company did something like this, the board of directors would toss him out on his butt for awful management.
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Reducing “headcount” by 25% will save about 1% of the federal budget…in exchange for what, exactly? This is the most mindless personnel action in the history of the US. The damage will last decades.
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The only effect this will have on government performance in general and FAA specifically is negative. None of the process has any rational connection to performance of any kind.
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The FAA’s Administrator serves a five year term. The idea behind that was to try and minimize political interference and give the Administrator time to understand the bureaucracy and try to make needed changes. The last Administrator was nominated by Biden and confirmed by the senate by a vote of 99 to 00. He served less than a year before Elon Musk, before Trump was even sworn in, told him and his deputy to resign or be fired. Now how much time to you think Musk spent analyzing the FAA Administration before he did that? His twenty year old engineers have now invaded the FAA and basically fired everyone on probation, regardless of their background or abilities. If you look at Musk and the companies he controls, they were all startups, starting with a clean sheet paper. He’s never had to deal with unions, entrenched personnel and the 50 to 100 years of inertia that many of these government agencies suffer from. He’s not going to make a deep dive into the guts of the FAA, or any other agency he’s taking an axe to, and try to identify the real problems and work for real solutions. Think about it, he fires an Administrator that was from the outside and was confirmed with bipartisan support, and then appoints, as acting administrator, someone that has been with the FAA for twenty years. Then his minions show up and fire the newest people hired by the FAA, ones that might bring fresh ideas to the agency and would eventually replace a lot of the old timers that need to be replaced. How has anything he has done make the FAA better? Musk doesn’t want to make a deep dive into anything, he wants to make a splash, get a lot of headlines, and then move on to another pool.
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I doubt anyone would argue that the FAA isn’t due for reform. But as with the mass firings of probationary employees in other federal agencies, these actions have nothing to do with reform or increasing efficiency. That would require some knowledge of the agency and having goals for the reform. This is just moving fast and breaking things to help offset the $4.5 trillion in tax cuts for corporations and the wealthy that are included in the House budget bill.
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