Last year, a shortage of air traffic controllers and other staff caused disruptions and delays at airports across the country. With the World Cup and busy summer travel just around the corner, NAV Canada says it's got a plan. Jonathan Bagg is director of stakeholder and industry relations at NAV Canada.

Now, NV Canada owns and operates Canada's civil air navigation system. I'm hoping you can break this down for us a little bit. What are you guys in charge of exactly?

So we're actually responsible for a variety of services as critical services that are provided to airlines and other aircraft operators. So when you go to the airport and you see that control tower in the background, it's our air traffic controllers that work in that tower, and they're providing critical services, giving take off clearances, landing clearances. We also have other facilities, including area control centres, where they're providing service around the airport once they leave the immediate vicinity, as well as en route as they evolve in Canadian airspace.

Now, last year, there was a lot of attention on some of the issues surrounding air traffic controllers and the shortage there. What are the staffing levels right now?

So staffing or resource constraints in the air traffic control field is a global issue. It's not unique to Canada. We're in a relatively good position, but we are we are working to increase our staffing and that includes ensuring training. We're training at record levels today, more than 500 people in our training programs. In the past two years, we've licensed 600 air traffic service professionals, about half of those air traffic controllers. And so we're now at a point where our rate of new licences outstrips the attrition that can be experienced by 26%.

What's causing the shortage?

So if you look there's a few factors. Obviously demographic pressures that are experienced across a range of industries with a workforce that's approaching retirement. But in addition to that, it was exacerbated by the pandemic period where we really had low traffic levels. And that unfortunately made it very difficult to train because there wasn't a lot of aircraft in the sky. So it makes it challenging to prove proficiency. And at the same time, we want to protect the operation from outbreaks. So that pandemic period unfortunately also impacted our throughput in terms of new licenses. And now most of the industry and internationally, we're all working to catch up on that perspective.

So help us understand what does it take to be one?

Yeah. So it's a very intense training program, take up to 30 months to qualify as an air traffic controller. Our field doesn't have, let's say, a university or college program that's a precursor to becoming an air traffic controller. You really come work for it. For NV Canada as a trainee, it's a paid training and you go through classroom and then simulation, and then finally on the job training where you're paired with another licensed air traffic controller until you qualify and receive your own Licence. And so it's a pretty lengthy process.

Tell me sort of the skills and things that they're learning. What is the process look like in those months of training?

Absolutely. So it's like I said, an intensive program. When we look at the types of people in terms of when they join our programs, they go through some testing, some aptitude testing. We're looking for certain skills, such as spatial reasoning, the ability to visualize airspace, looking at a two dimensional radar image and visualizing that in multiple dimensions, including speed and time and altitude. So those are that's an example of the type of skill set we're looking for. And then it takes a very strong commitment to go through training. It is full time training and we have a very high standard. It is true that not everybody qualifies, but that is because of the stringent standards around the type of service we provide.

Help me understand a little bit in terms of how you're planning for it. You mentioned the incentives there. I understand that NV Canada is bringing back and encouraging people who may have been promoted, who are managers to come back to the front lines, asking retirees to come back to the front lines as well. Is that correct?

So we have a whole suite of initiatives that we brought to bear to provide the best service this summer, and that includes some items, such as bringing back retired air traffic controllers. We have about 50 in the workforce currently that have come back on contract. Also, as you mentioned, people who recently left an operational role voluntarily and being incentivized to come back for the summer period to ensure we have the most resilient service possible.

Talk about what we can expect this summer. Anticipation for a rise in air traffic, not just because of the World Cup, but because it's summer and people want to get out. So tell me, what are you seeing this summer?

Well, that's a great point. Summer is the busiest travel season in Canada as a whole. And then of course, the summer, we have key international events, the one of the largest soccer tournaments in the world coming to Canada. So we're on the big stage. We've been preparing for well over a year for this summer. And that includes working with our airline and airport partners to plan the operation and anticipate what the demand is going to be. But it also, from our perspective, in terms of how we resource that we've been investing heavily in terms of, of course, I mentioned our training, but beyond that, we're doing some innovative things, which includes a critical shift incentive program, which helps incentivize coverage during critical high demand shifts. We also have technology tools that have been deployed in operation. So altogether, while no responsible Organization could guarantee that there will be no delays in the air traffic system this summer, because there's all kinds of reasons for delay, including weather. We see a lot of convective weather in the summer. We are in a good position to provide the best service we can.

What do you say to travellers who are frustrated with delays? People just want to be able to get from point A to point B with minimal disruptions.

That's a great question. And we do take any delays related to our traffic system very seriously. What passengers should know is that every decision we make is based on safety first and foremost. So in a situation where we have to slow traffic to ensure that it's at a rate that we can effectively and safely manage, we will do so. But that's always in the interest in safety. And on that front, we have one of the best safety traffic records in the world.

Do you see where we will get back to a time where this won't be a conversation or a cause for concern?

I think it's important when we talk about these things, that we contextualize it in operational performance. Staffing is one key aspect of that. But for the average passenger, the key point is what is the passenger journey I'm experiencing and how can we deliver on that? And so these measures that we put in place are to a large extent about that. When we look at our horizon because of the rate of demographic pressures, as people retire and we bring in new Licence, it will take some time to get to our target staffing levels. No, we're still a few years out. But in the interim, using technology, using the great skills of our professionals, our aim is to provide a smooth service for passengers.