The Federal Aviation Administration
Summary
The FAA runs the National Airspace System on $27.21 billion and 44,846 people in FY2026 -- the Good Citizen series' entry on the agency created after the 1956 Grand Canyon collision killed all 128 people aboard two airliners that had no one keeping them apart in uncongested airspace.
What is this organization?
What does it do?
In fiscal year 2024, the 's air traffic system handled 16.19 million flights⧉ -- 9.8 million scheduled and 6.4 million unscheduled -- while carrying 1.1 billion airline passengers⧉ to their destinations. The agency's own count put its air traffic controller workforce at 14,264⧉ that year, and its examiners had issued 848,770 active pilot certificates⧉ by the end of calendar 2024.
What does it cost to run — money and people?
Congress enacted $22.58 billion in new budget authority for the FAA in fiscal year 2026⧉ -- $13.71 billion for Operations, $4.58 billion for airport grants, $4.00 billion for Facilities and Equipment, and $290 million for research -- plus $4.63 billion carried forward under the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act⧉, for $27.21 billion in total FY2026 budgetary resources. That funds 44,846 full-time equivalent positions⧉, 43,331 of them paid directly from 's own appropriations. Measured against the Census Bureau's 341.8 million U.S. residents⧉ as of July 2025, that total works out to about $79.60 per person.
View data as table
| Operations | 13.7 |
|---|---|
| Grants-in-Aid for Airports | 4.6 |
| Facilities and Equipment | 4 |
| IIJA carryover (F&E + airport grants) | 4.6 |
| Research, Engineering and Development | 0.3 |
Why is it good for society?
That system exists because before it, no single authority had the job. On June 30, 1956, a TWA airliner and a United DC-7 collided over the Grand Canyon while both were flying under visual flight rules in uncongested airspace, killing all 128 people aboard both planes -- an accident the FAA's own history says dramatized that little had been done to mitigate the risk of midair collisions⧉ even as U.S. air traffic had more than doubled since World War II. Congress created the 's predecessor within two years to close that gap. The same instrument-flight-rule separation system now keeps millions of annual flights apart in the same skies.
- 's FY2026 enacted budget ($27.21B total, including carryover) funds 44,846 FTEs -- about $79.60 per U.S. resident.
- In FY2024 the agency handled 16.19 million flights and 1.1 billion airline passengers with 14,264 controllers -- the system built after the 1956 Grand Canyon collision killed 128 people in uncongested airspace with no one keeping the two planes apart.
Your handles.* Report a safety concern, regulatory violation, or an issue with an employee or facility -- anonymously if you choose -- through the FAA Hotline (866-835-5322). Registering a drone or reporting a drone safety concern goes through FAADroneZone. To comment on an open rulemaking, search the agency's dockets at regulations.gov.
Sources(4) ▾
- Federal Aviation Administration, A Brief History of the FAA (2026-06-01) — The 's own official history page -- the source for this entry's identity clause: the Federal Aviation Act of 1958, the 1956 Grand Canyon collision that prompted it, and the agency's 1967 move into the new Department of Transportation. Fetched live 2026-07-16 (curl succeeds directly against faa.gov; the Wayback capture above is a same-content snapshot for the audit trail). faa.gov · original document
- Federal Aviation Administration, Air Traffic Organization, Office of Performance Analysis (AJR-G), Air Traffic By The Numbers (June 2025 edition, FY2024 data) (2025-06-01) — 's own annual workload fact book (the ATO Fact Book), the standard -produced source for flights handled, controller headcount, pilot certificates, and commercial-passenger volume. Fetched as a PDF and read in full with pdftotext -layout -- the source for this entry's 'what does it do' figures. This is the most recent published edition (FY2024 is the latest full year reported as of 2026-07-16; no FY2025 edition has posted yet). faa.gov · original document
- U.S. Department of Transportation / Federal Aviation Administration, Federal Aviation Administration FY 2027 Budget Estimates (Congressional Justification) (2026-05-01) — 's own FY2027 budget submission to its appropriations subcommittees. Exhibit II-1 ( 2027 Budget Authority) and Exhibit II-2 (Total Budgetary Resources by Appropriation Account) give the most current FY2025 Actual/FY2026 Enacted/FY2027 Request summary of 's own budget authority; Exhibit II-7 gives the matching staffing table. Fetched as a PDF (transportation.gov blocks the automated WebFetch tool with a 403 but serves the file to a standard browser user agent, and to the Wayback capture above) and read in full with pdftotext -layout -- the source for this entry's budget and KPIs. The FY2026 Enacted column reflects the final enacted THUD appropriations act (passed January 2026), not 's own FY2026 request. transportation.gov · original document
- U.S. Census Bureau, U.S. Population Growth Slows Due to Historic Decline in Net International Migration (Vintage 2025 national population estimate) (2026-01-27) — The Census Bureau's own Vintage 2025 national population estimate release, giving the U.S. resident population as of July 1, 2025 -- the per-resident denominator for this entry's cost-per-person KPI, per better_metrics.md's sourced-denominator discipline. Same document already used for the same national population figure in the series' - entry; reused here for consistency across the series. census.gov · original document
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The Federal Aviation Administration traces its authority to the Federal Aviation Act of 1958⧉, signed August 23, 1958, which transferred the Civil Aeronautics Authority's safety functions to a new, independent Federal Aviation Agency. Renamed and folded into the newly created Department of Transportation on April 1, 1967⧉, the remains the operating administration with sole federal authority to regulate and separate air traffic across the National Airspace System.