Nashville's control tower has 27 controllers; the FAA wants 52

According to Boing Boing, Nashville International Airport's control tower is staffed with just twenty-seven certified air traffic controllers, when the FAA says it should have fifty-two. That shortfall arrives exactly as the country hits peak travel season: the TSA expects to screen over eighteen million people during Fourth of July week alone. The understaffing is a symptom of a deeper bottleneck—airlines are flying more passengers than ever, but on fewer flights than twenty years ago. The result: an aviation system stretched to breaking point.

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