Business Daily – What's Happened to Europe's Air Traffic Controllers?

Host: Will Bain
Guests: Frederic Dalot (Vice President, International Federation of Air Traffic Controllers Associations), Yvonne Moynihan (Wizz Air), Dr. Marina Efthemeo (Aviation Management, Dublin City University), Brendan Mulligan (AirNav Ireland)

Episode Date: December 1, 2025

Overview

This episode of Business Daily addresses the unfolding crisis in Europe's air traffic control sector: increasing delays, widespread staff shortages, safety concerns, and the mounting impact on both airlines and passengers. Host Will Bain explores the sources of these disruptions, from recruitment and training bottlenecks to burnout and the lure of better jobs abroad. Industry insiders and experts weigh in on the systemic challenges and put forward ideas for potential solutions.

Key Discussion Points and Insights

The Scope of the Crisis

• Disruptions: This summer saw unprecedented delays and cancellations at major European airports like Paris, causing chaos for travelers (02:15, 03:09).
• Delays are caused both by direct staff shortages and industrial action in response to working conditions (02:21).
• Impact is not limited to inconvenience: Airlines face significant financial liabilities, reputational risk, and the increases in airfares could soon affect millions (01:44).

The Controller’s Perspective: Overworked and Understaffed

• Capacity and Safety:
  Frederic Dalot highlights controllers’ struggle to manage more aircraft than is safe, with one controller handling up to 20 planes at once (03:49).

  “If you don’t have enough staff, then these people will work overtime, which in turn might actually bring them to be fatigued … This is the continuous cycle that we have to go out of.”
  — Frederic Dalot [05:42]

• Fatigue: Frequent overtime, minimal breaks, and being called in on days off have created dangerous levels of fatigue—an acute risk in a safety-critical job.
• Training Bottleneck: Even as recruitment efforts ramp up, there’s not enough training capacity to meet demand (05:54).

Airline Fallout: Financial, Operational, and Reputational Costs

• Massive Losses:

  “Across Europe, from the start of the year until now, we’ve had 20 million minutes of delays attributed to air traffic management.”
  — Yvonne Moynihan [06:42]

• Wizz Air, a major low-cost carrier, reports huge payouts in passenger compensation, even for delays they did not cause (06:57).
• Reliability Crisis: Airline brands suffer when travelers are stranded, undermining their promise of hassle-free travel (08:10).

What’s Causing the Shortages?

• Outpaced Recruitment: Surging post-pandemic travel isn’t matched by controller hiring; COVID created a lag in recruitment and training (10:25).
• Aging Workforce: A retirement wave is exacerbating shortages (10:25).
• Lengthy Training:

  “To be trained to become a controller it takes two to four years. So it’s very resource intensive with high fail rates.”
  — Dr. Marina Efthemeo [10:25]

• Geopolitical Pressures: Airspace closures over Ukraine and the Middle East have shifted traffic and intensified bottlenecks in other regions (10:25).
• Global Talent War: Gulf states and parts of Asia are luring European controllers away with higher, often tax-free, salaries and better benefits (12:51).

Fragmentation & Calls for Reform

• National vs. Regional Control: Multiplicity of national bodies managing fragmented European airspace exacerbates inefficiency. Airlines argue for the European Commission to implement a “Single European Skies” regulatory regime (13:19).
• Strikes: Particularly in France, strikes can paralyze all overflights, sparking calls for pan-European strike protections (13:50).

  “…in France these flights are not exempted, whereas they are in other countries such as Spain or Italy … so essentially, they paralyze European skies.”
  — Yvonne Moynihan [13:50]

• Capacity, Not Congestion: Airlines dispute that the problem is simply ‘too many flights’; they argue it’s a lack of organizational capacity and investment (14:33).

Training and Recruitment Innovations

• Ireland’s Example: AirNav Ireland partners with Dublin City University and uses social media/school outreach to widen the talent pool (16:07).
• Competitive Packages: Despite proactive efforts and favorable employment terms in Ireland, the region finds itself competing with far higher salaries abroad (16:40).

  “We’ve been inundated with people who want to work as air traffic controllers … But we would have lost probably nine air traffic controllers this year now, so Doha, Qatar, that we just can’t compete with the salaries that are offering over there.”
  — Brendan Mulligan [16:40]

• Hands-On Outreach: Visiting schools, organizing simulation exercises, and engaging young people build early interest—while striving for gender diversity (17:28).
• Academic Partnerships: Integrating air traffic control modules and technical testing into academic degree programs to streamline the hiring pipeline (18:20).

The Urgency of the Moment

• Cost of Delays:

  "If we consider the amount of delays translated into the money value, we can say that we didn't only hit the capacity wall, but the wall has fallen on our heads... when we're talking about 2.8 billion euros equivalent for the delays, this is not a small figure."
  — Frederic Dalot [19:12]

• The crisis is now acute—without coordinated regulatory reform and significant investment in training and retention, rising costs and disruptions may soon outpace the system’s capacity to cope.

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On the relentless pressure controllers face:

  “…It’s a ballet that goes on 24/7 … this leads to, of course, fatigue. And this is one of the reasons why air traffic controllers can work maximum two and a half hours and then they need a minimum of 30 minutes of break.”
  — Frederic Dalot [04:16]

• The cost to airlines:

  “If we have delays which are over three hours, then we have to pay compensation … even though the airline is not actually responsible for the delay.”
  — Yvonne Moynihan [06:57]

• On the appeal of the job:

  “Everyone is fascinated by aviation. Once they come in and we put a headset on them and… have simulation exercises, they're just fascinated by it.”
  — Brendan Mulligan [18:54]

Timestamps for Key Segments

| Timestamp | Segment Description | |-----------|-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 01:09 | Introduction to the crisis: delays, cancellations, cost and frustration | | 03:49 | Air traffic controllers’ day-to-day capacity problems, fatigue, and burnout | | 06:42 | Airline perspective: impact of delays and compensation costs | | 10:25 | Academic view: root causes behind staffing shortages and training bottlenecks | | 12:51 | Lure of higher salaries abroad; global ‘brain drain’ of controllers | | 13:19 | Airlines’ push for regulatory harmonisation and the Single European Skies proposal | | 16:07 | Recruitment efforts in Ireland: social media, school visits, and training innovations | | 19:12 | The urgency and scale of the crisis, risk of unaffordable delays |

Tone and Closing Thoughts

The episode blends urgency with pragmatism, balancing the frustrated voices of stranded passengers and airlines with expert insight into the systemic roots of the crisis. Solutions are possible—but require political will, long-term investment, and a Europe-wide approach. As the episode closes, listeners are left with the sense that unless change comes soon, flying in Europe will become less predictable—and much more expensive.