Plenty of people are packing their bags and getting ready to travel this holiday weekend and this coming summer.

But there is talk that reported shortages of air traffic controllers could cause delays or safety problems.

“Safety and security is always a top priority for the FAA, for the airlines and for the airport," said Andy Moore, Frederick Douglass Greater Rochester International Airport director.

The Federal Aviation Administration would not provide an interview, but earlier this month the agency forwarded a plan to lawmakers with its “projections necessary for building and maintaining the staffing levels necessary to ensure the safe and efficient operation of the National Airspace System.”

“Whether it’s the airlines or the FAA, everybody’s having employee issues moving forward and I’m very confident that the FAA and the airlines are actively trying to resolve those as best they can, as quickly as they can to get everything up to full staff," said Moore.

Moore is only speaking as the director of Rochester's airport and not on behalf of the FAA.

“We have a great relationship with the FAA and also the TSA,” he said.

The industry is working to avoid a repeat of last summer when travelers were forced to cope with delays and cancellations and there were several dangerous airline runway mishaps.

“I just think the airlines and the FAA have identified some of the vulnerabilities that we all experienced back in 2022 and I think they’re aggressively trying to work to correct those or keep traffic and people moving through the summer,” he said. “You know we all saw some of the meltdowns that occurred during the summer of 2022 and I think the airlines are doing everything they can to prevent that from happening again.”

The FAA says the summer of 2022 delays were the result of weather and other issues, not control tower staffing.

“So I think you always expect some level of delays, whether it’s an airline, a mechanical issue, whether it’s weather related," said Moore.

The FAA reports it is on track to hire its goal of 1,500 air traffic controllers this year. However, its report states that it expects to lose over 1,300 controllers due to retirements, promotions and other reasons during the 2023 fiscal year.

“Well I know they’re actively trying to hire new personnel. Certainly during COVID-19, that was a big stop-gap, if you want to call it that, with the training and hiring of FAA controllers," said Moore.

And the training process is in depth and lengthy.

Moore states, “I just really want to let everybody know that safety and security’s always a top priority in the aviation business.”

Some interesting facts according to the FAA:

• At any given moment there are approximately 5,000 aircraft traversing the U.S. skies.
• The agency is responsible for 5.3 million square miles of U.S. domestic airspace and 24 million square miles of U.S. airspace over the oceans.
• There are 43,290 average daily flights in and out of the U.S.
• There are about 14,000 air traffic controllers across the country.