US government wants gamers to become air traffic controllers

The US government is once again posting videos targeting gamers, but in a surprising twist it’s not using them to promote wars of aggression or gutter racism. Instead, it’s hoping to convince them to sign up to become air traffic controllers.

“YOU can be the future of air traffic control,” US secretary of transportation Sean Duffy said on X, in a message complete with police car light and googly-eye emojis. “It’s not a GAME, its [sic] a CAREER.”

The video was subsequently retweeted by the US Federation Aviation Administration and White House X accounts.

The choice of an Xbox One logo to open the video is interesting—the Xbox One console was supplanted by the Series X/S hardware years ago—while the quick, smash-cut clips of games that follow is a selection of relatively mainstream fare including Madden, Fortnite, League of Legends, and Rocket League (I think, the resolution is terrible)—nothing too out-of-the-box there. And then, the big question: Are you up for this?

“This” is air traffic control, which the video notes is not actually a game—it’s a career! (The video manages to spell it correctly.) It’s also a notoriously high-pressure and stressful job, replete with mental health challenges that controllers often feel forced to hide in order to avoid decertification.

But the pay is good if that’s what you’re after: The video notes that the average salary of an air traffic controller is $155,000 after three years, and that’s not nothing.

The ATC hiring process is “supercharged,” the video says, and while I don’t really know what that means, there does seem to be a certain urgency to the whole thing. Which is understandable: A November 2025 CBS News report says the US had 11,700 “certified professional controllers and certified controllers in training,” roughly 4,000 short of FAA staffing targets; that shortfall was made worse by the US government shutdown that ran through October and November 2025, which left controllers unpaid for 44 days, leading to a surge in retirements.

“To reach the next generation of air traffic controllers, we need to adapt,” Duffy said in a statement. “This campaign’s innovative communication style and focus on gaming taps into a growing demographic of young adults who have many of the hard skills it takes to be a successful controller.

“Thanks to President Trump—we’ve already made incredible progress with the highest controller staffing levels in six years. There’s never been a more exciting time to become a controller and level up into a career with a strong purpose—keeping American families safe.”

A recent crash at New York’s Laguardia airport occurred after a controller sent a fire truck out in the path of an incoming jet, killing Air Canada pilots Antoine Forest and Mackenzie Gunther. An investigation into the incident is ongoing and numerous factors are being considered, including the possibility that the tower was not sufficiently staffed. The Trump administration fired around 400 FAA employees in early 2025, but Duffy said at the time that no one “critical to safety,” including air traffic controllers, were let go.