Air traffic control towers from Montreal to Sydney are scrambling for staff, and some countries have started quietly recruiting each other's controllers to plug the gaps. Canada's air navigation provider has brought in foreign controllers willing to immigrate, Australian controllers are reportedly leaving for jobs in Qatar, and South Africa has watched dozens of experienced staff depart for better-paying posts abroad. Aviation officials say the shortage is global, and poaching workers from one country to staff another does little to solve it.
NAV CANADA used an external recruiting firm to bring in eight foreign air traffic controllers willing to immigrate to Canada, describing the move as a limited, targeted measure, according to The Independent. Canada normally hires only citizens or permanent residents as controllers, making the foreign recruitment notable. Nick von Schoenberg, representing the controllers' union, said the union generally opposes foreign hiring as a fix for longstanding staffing problems but would not obstruct NAV CANADA's recruitment plans given current circumstances.
Moving experienced controllers between countries offers short-term relief but does little to address the broader worldwide shortfall, per the same report from The Independent. CAE's 2025 aviation talent forecast projects that 71,000 new air traffic controllers will be needed globally by 2034, driven both by industry growth and the need to replace an aging workforce, since nearly half of today's controllers are expected to retire by then. The firm notes that many air navigation providers are already short hundreds, and sometimes thousands, of controllers.
Australia Watches Controllers Head to Qatar
Two people with knowledge of the matter told the outlet that some controllers employed by Airservices Australia were moving to Qatar, which has advertised for staff. Scott Nugent said dozens of Australian controllers have resigned to work overseas or are exploring doing so, with departing staff reportedly seeking better fatigue management, leave policies, overtime terms and staffing levels. Airservices Australia said its national attrition rate remained within expectations, though the agency has also been expanding its own pipeline, endorsing a record 91 new controllers in 2025 against a target of 85 and expecting up to 95 more in 2026, per Asian Aviation.
Indonesia has agreed to deploy five controllers to Australia next year through 2030, according to the original reporting carried by The Sacramento Bee. Setio Anggoro said Australia needs more controllers while Indonesia currently has a surplus and is ready to export its own staff. Qatar's Civil Aviation Authority did not respond to a request for comment on the reported staff moves, the Bee's report noted.
Australia's staffing debate has unfolded alongside scrutiny of near-miss incidents at Sydney Airport. In August, a controller was the only one in the tower during a close call and had a high predicted fatigue level, according to preliminary findings described by ABC News. Those preliminary reports outlined the sequence of events and conditions at the time but made no findings or recommendations, and investigators said they had not yet determined whether staffing contributed to any of the six Sydney incidents under examination. Transport Minister Catherine King had said in August that Airservices Australia had 91 new controllers in the system with 95 more due that year, as reported by ABC News.
South Africa's Pipeline Can't Keep Pace With Departures
South Africa's air traffic and navigation services agency, ATNS, said 86 employees left the company in the year ending March, including 50 from its air-traffic services division, according to News24. ATNS said the outflow of experienced personnel has outpaced the capacity of its training pipeline, and that international providers offer remuneration and incentives the agency cannot match. ATNS chairman Zola Majavu said the shortage of controllers was almost compromising service delivery, while the agency said it manages 6.1% of the world's airspace.
The Independent separately reported that South Africa's agency lost 28 controllers within eight months between 2024 and 2025. ATNS said it is encouraging former employees to return to South Africa to help close the expertise gap within an 18-month to three-year time frame, and the agency limits how many staff it recruits from any single country. Josia Manyakoana said South Africa does not want to cause shortages in any one specific country, per the Bee's reporting.
A Worldwide Training Bottleneck
Training timelines vary widely by country and account. Asian Aviation reports that controller training can take up to 18 months, while The Globe and Mail describes NAV CANADA's process as requiring between 18 and 30 months, with moves to new airports demanding additional months of retraining. Airservices Australia CEO Rob Sharp has said it takes two years to train a controller and another two years for that person to become fully established in the systems, according to ABC News.
CANSO, which represents air traffic control providers globally, is examining ways for controllers' current employers and training organizations to share training costs. A CANSO spokesperson said the country that trains a controller usually bears the full cost even if that controller later moves elsewhere, and members have expressed concern about losing controllers they trained at their own expense. New Zealand's aviation agency said air navigation providers should collectively tackle staffing shortages rather than simply shift the problem from one country to another.
In the Asia-Pacific region, CANSO data cited by Asian Aviation shows 64% of controllers are now over 40, up from 50% in 2010, while the share aged 30 or younger fell from 18% to just 9%. A survey by IFATCA found 80% of responding Asia-Pacific member associations reported regular overtime, missed breaks or combined sectors to keep operations running, conditions the group says can erode safety margins and reduce efficiency. India's Ministry of Civil Aviation has told parliament the country has 1,279 controller vacancies.
Disruptions Already Rippling Through Travel
The staffing strain has already shown up in flight delays. Staffing shortages at the Philadelphia air traffic control facility prompted the FAA to restrict traffic in spring 2025, according to PBS News. In Australia, Asian Aviation reported four days of severe disruption at Sydney Airport in January tied to rostering and staffing constraints at Sydney and Brisbane.
In Canada, more than 200 flights were delayed and 23 cancelled at Vancouver's airport over the 2025 Canada Day long weekend, with another 100 cancellations and 195 delays in late August blamed on staffing constraints, according to The Globe and Mail. NAV CANADA had more than 2,100 controllers on staff but remained roughly 200 short of its target level, the Globe and Mail reported. The carrier has licensed more than 300 controllers since 2023, has over 500 students currently in training, rehired more than 50 retired controllers on contract, and has begun recruiting experienced controllers from abroad for towers in Vancouver, Winnipeg, downtown Toronto and Kelowna. The same report noted that the United States and Europe face proportionally larger staffing gaps than Canada.
Aviation officials interviewed for the original reporting said recruitment alone cannot solve the imbalance, and that countries need to train more controllers while improving retention to keep pace with departures. Controllers worldwide have been leaving for higher pay and improved working conditions, with some also drawn by the chance to keep working past their home country's retirement age, according to The Independent's reporting. For now, the scramble for experienced staff continues even as officials acknowledge it is, at best, a stopgap for a shortage playing out on nearly every continent.
