The result was a sharp drop in morale that clearly caught the FAA off guard: The agency had projected that 700 controllers would retire in 2007, but in reality nearly 900 did, and the number of newer controllers who quit is also up, according to the National Air Traffic Controllers Association (NATCA). Last year, the attrition rate was an average of 4.44 controllers per day; in early 2008, it had risen to 6.22 a day, says NATCA. In 2005, there were 13,403 fully certified air-traffic controllers. Now there are 11,077, and the ratio of controllers to trainees has dropped from more than 12 to 1 three years ago to 3 to 1 today. The net effect, say controllers, is that there aren't enough seasoned veterans to break in the greenhorns.

An overtaxed system can have other consequences. Patrick Forrey, president of NATCA, claims that 25 percent of all flight delays are caused by understaffing. When controllers reach the limit of the flights they can handle at one time, other planes must wait to take off or land.

If you look at air-traffic control for the country as a whole, you could make the case that fewer controllers are needed: Last year, operations handled by control towers totaled about 61 million, down from 68 million in 2000—much of that drop due to the post-9/11 decline in flights. But the data shows that the pinch is being felt at certain crucial airports: At seven hubs that account for 72 percent of all delays, traffic is up by an average of 10 percent over 2000, which was the busiest year on record. At New York's JFK, it's far worse: The number of flights rose 44 percent from 2004, while the number of certified controllers declined by roughly the same percentage, from 37 two years ago to 23 now. FAA spokesman Paul Takemoto says that the agency is actively recruiting in two dozen facilities with a high number of retirees or where some of the staff regularly work overtime. "We projected we would hire 1,300 new controllers in fiscal year 2007, and actually hired 1,800," says Takemoto. "So on balance, we're on target—actually slightly ahead of target—in our workforce goals." He also notes that 2007 was long projected to be a peak year for retirements. But NATCA officials say that if that was indeed the case, the FAA should have stepped up its hiring five years ago—because that's how long it can take for a controller to become fully qualified. "There's no excuse for their not having gotten those [new] controllers in place years ago," says Barrett Byrnes, president of the JFK tower controllers local. The FAA says it's cutting down training time by using simulators and tailoring the training to specific jobs, rather than a one-size-fits-all approach—changes the agency claims will allow it to certify new controllers in two to three years instead of three to five.

INSIDE THE TOWER

JFK is at the center of the tangled mess known as the Eastern triangle, a swath of airspace stretching from New England to the South, which, the FAA says, is responsible for three-quarters of all delays in the country. One afternoon in March, I drop by JFK's 300-foot-high control tower, where I watch jets and helicopters zip by at all altitudes and airspeeds, heading for LaGuardia, a few miles away, or to Newark and Teterboro, to the west. To the east lie Long Island's Macarthur and Republic airports and, most critically, the New York TRACON (Terminal Radar Approach Control) center, which manages all aircraft as they transition from the airport zone to an altitude of 17,000 feet.