Back in August 2009, this blog discussed a new contract for U.S. air traffic controllers, bumping their pay up from a median of $117,000 per year (post). When you read this piece from the Times of London about Spanish air traffic controller pay, it becomes clear why the U.S. union felt that their members are underpaid. For reference, Spain has one of the highest unemployment rates in the world, with 43 percent of young people who are looking for jobs unable to find one (nytimes). Mancur Olson would have predicted that, in a mature country such as Spain, for every young person struggling to get on that first rung of the work ladder there would be a highly paid older worker stepping on the kid’s hands. The Times seems to have found some of those older workers. The unionized controllers in Spain have an “average basic salary” of nearly $300,000 per year, “but most double or triple this amount by working overtime.” The ten highest paid controllers are earning around $1.2 million per year, handling flights carrying Spanish citizens who earn an average of $25,500 per year.
[How busy are the Spanish controllers? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World’s_busiest_airports_by_passenger_traffic shows that the Madrid airport is one of the world’s 30 busiest, handling about half as many passengers as Atlanta and 50 percent more than Minneapolis or Charlotte. Spain has 2,300 controllers, according to the Times article, one for every 17,400 residents. The U.S. has 26,000 according to the BLS, one for every 11,540 residents. So in theory the Spanish controllers are working harder, serving more people. I could not find any statistics for the total number of flights by country, but I suspect that the U.S. has many more flights per capita. The U.S. has larger distances to cover and fewer good alternatives for ground transportation. The U.S. has a vibrant general aviation sector, including thousands of training aircraft that do practice instrument approaches and landings all day every day. The U.S. needs air freight to deliver mail and packages overnight; Spain is smaller than Texas. The general aviation component is what makes U.S. controllers so busy. Spain has 153 airports (source); the U.S. has more than 15,000. I did find this report from the Spanish airport authority. The Barcelona airport, for example, which is Spain’s 2nd busiest, handled an average of 1000 operations per day in 2007. Teterboro, NJ, with no commercial flights, handles 500 per day, even after the Collapse of 2008. The Palo Alto, CA airport, with a 2400′ runway (suitable for 4-seat Cessnas and Pipers; a jet airport would typically have 7,000′ or more), also handles 500 operations per day. Reed-Hillview, a training airport east of the main San Jose, CA airport, handles 630 operations per day. In fact, it looks as though there are more takeoffs and landings in the San Francisco Bay Area than in all of Spain.]
Full post, including comments