SAN CARLOS — An airport not far from San Francisco may not have anyone staffing its air control tower as soon as this weekend following a pay dispute with its contracted air traffic controllers and the Federal Aviation Administration.
The Peninsula general aviation airport is one of the few airports staffed by controllers contracted with the FAA, not the FAA themselves. The administration will switch contract providers to Robinson Aviation at the beginning of February. However, the contract would not include locality pay to account for the high cost of living in the Bay Area, so all current controllers declined the job offer.
The change has led to questions about safety, especially in the wake of the mid-air collision of a plane and a helicopter Wednesday night in Washington D.C. Sixty-seven people are believed to have died in that crash, with conflicting reports about whether control-tower staffing was “normal” at the time of the incident.
However, the possibility remains that the FAA will bring in air traffic controllers from other parts of the country to staff the tower at San Carlos by Saturday.
Alessandro Franco, owner of the San Carlos Flight Center flight school, said that San Carlos Airport is the only general-aviation airport in the Bay Area with a contracted tower staff. Towers at other general-aviation airports in the area, like Reid-Hillview in San Jose, are staffed by FAA employees. Air control towers in Redding, Sacramento and Chico are also staffed by contracted controllers; they are among 21 such facilities in the state.
Not all general aviation airports have air control towers, like the ones in San Martin, Byron and Half Moon Bay. Pilots at non-towered airports are advised to follow specific flight operations for such facilities, including directly communicating with each other on a share frequency and organize operations themselves, which usually works without incident at less busy airports.
According to a statement by the FAA, Robinson Aviation is responsible for ensuring the continuity of air traffic services when it takes over the contract. However, the company was unable to hire controllers to work at San Carlos, and they are are working with the contractor to develop mitigation strategies to continue air traffic services.
A press release from the county of San Mateo stated that negotiations are underway to resolve the matter. County officials reiterated that safety is their highest priority and airport operations will continue without disruptions. San Carlos Airport is also under the oversight of the FAA’s Northern California Terminal Radar Approach Control, or NorCal TRACON, which manages air traffic throughout the region.
Davi Howard, San Carlos Airport communications manager, said that Robinson Aviation called in controllers from other parts of the country to staff the tower by Saturday.
“If there were no air traffic controllers in the tower, we would encourage that the pilots limit their use to the San Carlos Airport for the period of time that it would be unmanned, but we’re pretty confident that that’s not going to happen,” Howard said.
Franco said that an unmanned tower at the airport is a cause for concern, especially with the San Carlos Airport being so close to San Francisco International Airport. The main concern, he added, is the volume of traffic around the area because planes approaching SFO make their final descent near San Carlos.
“There’s going to be a lot of traffic, and the tower, when they’re operating, will usually help remind and advise pilots of that proximity,” Franco said. “And that won’t be a service that anyone’s providing come Saturday.”
The airport also handles a lot of charter operations and flight training, which involves repeated takeoffs and landings. Franco said that air traffic is the immediate concern right now, because operations would be “logistically more challenging and less safe,” and other airports in the area might have to assume that traffic.
In 2024, San Carlos Airport had more than 98,000 operations and over 100,000 tower operations.
Franco also expressed concern about the funding of the airport in the long run if the issue of staffing was not resolved. Howard said the San Carlos Airport is funded by user fees, like hangar rentals and businesses that operate at the airport. But if the airport is deemed unsafe by its users, they might have to move elsewhere.
Franco said it is possible for the FAA to defer or reverse the contract changeover to allow the staff that currently works in the tower to continue working, but he said it didn’t seem like the FAA was willing to do that. The FAA could also staff the tower with their own employees, but Franco said the FAA rejected that option.
“Someone needs to do something, either reversing the contract or the FAA in places like this needs to assume the tower themselves and not leave it up to these contractors to provide services when they’re not doing so,” Franco said.
San Mateo County Supervisor Ray Mueller, whose district includes San Carlos Airport, said that if an accident were to happen around the airport, the FAA and their contracted controllers would be responsible.
“The FAA needs to prioritize public safety over cost-saving measures. We need to ensure that air traffic controllers are properly compensated to reflect the high cost of living in the Bay Area,” Mueller said. “And the FAA’s contractor decision must be immediately reversed as to ensure San Carlos Airport is properly staffed with qualified controllers. Public safety demands it.”
