Jeff Bingaman United States Senator from New Mexico

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Jeff Bingaman today announced that Eastern New Mexico University-Roswell has been selected as the site of a new air traffic controller training program.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) today announced its select schools to house an expansion of its air traffic controller training program, called Air Traffic Collegiate Training Initiative or AT-CTI.  Bingaman has strongly advocated for the AT-CTI to be housed in at ENMU-Roswell and on several occasions wrote to the FAA highlighting the benefits of locating a new AT-CTI program in Roswell.

"I applaud FAA for choosing Eastern New Mexico University-Roswell as one of the new locations to train our country's air traffic controllers.  ENMU-R is an ideal selection because it has wealth of existing faculty, equipment, and facility resources already in place.  The Air Traffic Collegiate Training Initiative will be a great addition," Bingaman said.

 The AT-CTI is a non-funded FAA program designed to provide the FAA with qualified applicants to fill air traffic controller positions.  Graduates of the program are eligible to bypass the Air Traffic Basics Course, which is the first five weeks of qualification training at the FAA Academy in Oklahoma City, and enter the Academy for initial training.  The program involves a partnership between the FAA and qualified colleges and universities, where approximately 200 hours of classroom instruction are provided by the partnering schools or institutions.   The FAA provides the curriculum to the schools in the form of lesson plans, instructor notes, and behavioral objectives.  These guidelines are incorporated into the school's aviation degree program.  FAA plans to hire approximately 17,000 new air traffic controllers over the next ten years.