Air Traffic Controllers

Air traffic controllers play an outsized role in a state that relies heavily on air transportation and where pilots face a wide range of hazards. Alaska has more air traffic controllers per capita than any other state - seven times the national average and nearly twice that of the next-highest state, New Hampshire. Alaska has about 500 civilian air traffic controllers - 2.2 percent of the U.S. total - and nearly all of them work for the Federal Aviation Administration or as federal contractors. An additional 117 controllers are military.