Fifty-five minutes proved to not be enough to handle all the questions attendees had about “The Day in the Life of an Air Traffic Controller,” a presentation by CJP member and Jacksonville Center (ZJX) controller Luke Alcorn on Day Two at CJP 2023.
CJP Chairman Emeritus Randy Broiles introduced Alcorn by noting ZJX is the second-busiest air route traffic control center (ARTCC) in the country, just behind Atlanta. Approximately 200 controllers work at ZJX – more than 100 fewer, Broiles noted, than the FAA’s target staffing level of 315 for the facility.
“They manage that piece of airspace that’s 150 miles wide,” Broiles continued. “Every one of us has to go through Jacksonville Center to reach South Florida or the Caribbean, unless you’re coming back from the south.” Controllers at ZJX must coordinate extremely high amounts of traffic with military and space operations airspace, and route aircraft around frequent convective buildups.
Alcorn fit a lot of useful information into those 55 minutes on subjects ranging from the best time to file your flight plan (a day or two in advance is fine, but an ARTCC won’t see it until 30 minutes prior to your listed departure time) to upcoming technological enhancements like controller pilot data link communications, or CPDLC.
“We’re one of the last centers that doesn’t have it,” he said of CPDLC, “but we just turned it on for the first time and should hopefully have it online 24/7 by [the end of November.]”
While technology and automation have helped streamline some parts of ATC, “our staffing nationwide is down 1200 controllers compared to 2017,” he said. “My facility alone had over 300 when I started there in 2003, and now we’re down to 210. Yes, automation has made it a little better and helped us work at this volume, but the challenges are still going on.”
In response to an audience question about suggested filing altitudes into Florida, Alcorn noted ZJX currently lacks ‘super-high’ routes to direct traffic above congestion into Orlando and other large airports in the northern part of the state.
“You can file at 18,000 or 45,000, but an airplane’s still an airplane,” he added. “Those routes are just built the way they are. They’ve got a little bit of lateral offset to them, but there’s no different altitude that helps you. Weather impacts and traffic volumes will push you down; Tampa and Orlando typically come into our airspace and get pushed down from Atlanta Center to FL350 and below.”
Another attendee commented that, “I’ve been flying for a long time, and I’m always amazed by how professional and engaged all controllers are.”
“We’re all public servants who work for the federal government,” Alcorn responded. “We are there to provide you with a service, and we do try to enforce that ethos throughout the workforce.”