The Scissortail Brief | May 18–25, 2026
This week, the FAA released its 2026-2028 Air Traffic Controller Workforce Plan with a staffing target that immediately drew pushback from the controllers' union. Wheels Up reported Q1 results and completed its fleet transition 18 months ahead of schedule. Jet-A prices held near decade highs as FBOs headed into one of their busiest weekends of the year. Traffic numbers show North American bizav still running positive year over year. Memorial Day weekend weather across the lower 48 is going to make a lot of pilots earn their certificates. And on this Memorial Day weekend, we take a moment.
Infrastructure: FAA Releases 2026-2028 ATC Workforce Plan
On May 15, the FAA released its 2026-2028 Air Traffic Controller Workforce Plan. The agency's stated goal: hire 2,200 controllers in FY2026, 2,300 in FY2027, and 2,400 in FY2028, for a total of roughly 6,900 new controllers over three years. As of April 2026, approximately 11,000 Certified Professional Controllers are deployed across more than 300 FAA facilities, with another 4,000 in the training pipeli
The plan sets a full staffing target of 12,563 CPCs. That's the number that drew immediate attention, because the FAA's own workforce plan from 2024 called for 14,633 controllers. The agency's explanation: a new staffing model developed with the Transportation Research Board of the National Academies shows that modern scheduling tools and efficiency improvements allow the same NAS to operate safely with fewer bodies.
NATCA, the controllers' union, wasn't involved in developing the new model and disputes the methodology. The union's position is that the lower target doesn't reflect what facilities actually need to operate safely and reduce the overtime burden that's been grinding through the existing workforce.
FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford was direct about the intent: "We can't continue to operate the same way and expect better results." The FAA also announced on May 18 that it's already 70% toward its FY2026 hiring goal of 2,200 controllers, and that it's taking over operations at two contract ATC towers as part of a broader push to standardize training and improve pipeline flow.
On the same day, Transportation Secretary Duffy announced $26 million in FAA workforce investment aimed at pilots, mechanics, technicians, and drone operators. The money goes toward training programs across the spectrum, from university partnerships to technical schools.
For the bizav operator, the ATC staffing story has direct operational implications. Understaffed facilities run more overtime, experience higher fatigue rates, and are more susceptible to the kind of error chains that the DCA midair exposed. Whether the 12,563 CPC target is accurate is a methodological dispute the industry will be watching closely through 2026 and 2027.
Industry: Wheels Up Q1 Results and Fleet Transition Complete
Wheels Up reported first quarter 2026 results on May 11 and announced that its fleet modernization is complete, 18 months ahead of schedule.
All Citation X and Hawker 400XP aircraft have been retired from revenue service. Wheels Up now operates exclusively Phenom 300 and Challenger 300 series aircraft. The Phenom and Challenger fleet grew from 21 aircraft at the end of Q1 2025 to 36 aircraft at the end of Q1 2026, with the company targeting a doubling of that fleet by year-end 2026.
The financial numbers are a study in transition. GAAP revenue came in at $168.9 million for Q1 2026, down 5% year over year. Private jet flight revenue declined as planned, driven by the wind-down of legacy fleet operations. Phenom and Challenger revenue more than doubled year over year. The company posted a net loss for the quarter, which CEO George Mattson described as expected given the seasonality of Q1 and the costs of the transition itself.
Operational performance was the headline: 99% completion rate, 81% on-time performance (arrival within 30 minutes of plan), and 68 days out of the year so far with a perfect completion rate and zero cancellations, including a 14-day streak to open 2026. More than 800 Signature members are now enrolled, representing one-third of the total membership base, with Phenom and Challenger demand described as strong within that tier.
Delta, which controls 95% of Wheels Up, led a new $100 million term loan financing package, with capacity to expand by an additional $100 million. The financing supports the company's multi-year growth plan as it rebuilds on the leaner, two-platform fleet.
The Wheels Up story over the past 18 months has been a genuine operational turnaround from a company that came close to failing in 2023. The current numbers show a business in transition rather than in recovery, with the legacy revenue decline still outpacing the Phenom and Challenger growth in absolute dollar terms for now. Whether the trajectory closes that gap through 2026 is the question the market is watching.
Fuel: Holding Near the Decade High as Memorial Day Traffic Builds
As of May 25, the national average for Jet-A at U.S. FBOs sits at $7.96 per gallon across 3,181 reporting locations, per GlobalAir. The Central region is lowest at $6.93. Alaska is highest at $9.00. The ARGUS May monthly average came in at $8.57 per gallon, down 6 cents from April's decade high of $8.63 but still up $2.09 year over year.
Memorial Day weekend is one of the three or four highest-volume weekends of the year for FBO fuel sales. With prices holding near where they are, operators flying holiday weekend legs are absorbing the same elevated fuel costs that have been in place since late February. FBOs heading into the weekend were described in industry trade coverage as "counting on summer traffic to offset the squeeze," given that wholesale prices and retail margins have compressed in ways that make high-volume throughput more important than it's been in years.
For operators, the planning calculus hasn't changed from prior weeks. Contracted fuel programs and smart stop planning continue to return real savings against the retail spread. The Central region at $6.93 average versus Alaska at $9.00 illustrates the range that still exists across the system.
Traffic: Week 18 and Year-to-Date Picture
Per WingX data through Week 18 (May 4-10), global bizjet departures totaled 78,543, up 4% year over year. North America recorded 57,010 private jet flights for the week, up 5% year over year. The U.S. accounted for 55,000 of those, also up 5%.
Year-to-date through Week 18, worldwide private jet departures are tracking 4.6% ahead of 2025, which itself was running 2.6% ahead of 2024 at the same point. Florida was up 10% year over year for the week. California was up 6%. Miami, San Francisco, Las Vegas, and Fort Lauderdale have all posted double-digit year-over-year gains on a year-to-date basis.
The large-cabin softness we noted last week continues to be the segment running behind the overall market. The broader North American picture is positive. The divergence between large-cabin and other categories is the pattern to watch as summer traffic builds.
Full Week 20 and Week 21 data covering the Memorial Day period will be published by WingX and ARGUS in the coming days.
Weather Brief: Memorial Day Weekend Lower 48
This is the week to have your alternate and your fuel plan sorted before you launch.
A wet Memorial Day weekend is in store for the East, with widespread rainfall of 1 to more than 2 inches expected from the Gulf Coast to southern New England. Each day of the extended holiday weekend, the most widespread showers and thunderstorms are expected from Texas to New England, with multiple rounds of heavy downpours possible across parts of Texas, western Tennessee, and Kentucky. Some areas face flash flooding risk.
By region:
The Gulf Coast and Southeast are the most active corridor through the weekend. Convective activity is likely on multiple days, with the worst timing in the afternoon and evening hours. IFR conditions are possible at lower altitudes. Tops could reach FL400 or above in the most active cells.
The Northeast is seeing a wet pattern through Sunday, improving somewhat on Memorial Day Monday. Sunday is the wettest day for southern New England, with a soaking rain expected. Memorial Day itself may not be a washout but rain chances remain. Ceilings will be low at many Northeast airports through the weekend.
The Plains and Midwest have a brief window of improvement before another round of convection moves through late in the weekend. Severe weather risk remains elevated in the central Plains corridor.
The West is the clear region this weekend. High pressure is in control from the Pacific Coast through the Rockies, with VFR conditions and light winds at most airports. Good weekend to be flying west of the Mississippi.
The Northern Plains are warm and relatively dry, running well above seasonal average temperatures.
Bottom line: if you're operating in the eastern half of the country this weekend, check weather no earlier than two hours before departure, have a solid alternate, and build flexibility into your schedule. The system is moving slowly enough that timing individual legs well can make the difference between a smooth trip and a long hold.
Memorial Day
On this Memorial Day weekend, we pause The Scissortail Brief for a moment.
Business aviation exists, in part, because of the people who gave their lives to protect the freedoms this country operates under, including the freedom to fly. The pilots and maintainers and operators who built this industry did so in a country that had fought to remain free. Many of them served before they flew commercially. Some flew in combat before they flew passengers.
The names on the Wall, the headstones at Arlington, the memorials in small towns across Texas and everywhere else, those are real people who had families and plans and things they wanted to do. They deserve more than a long weekend.
Thank you to everyone who served, and to the families who carried the weight of that service. Blue skies to those we've lost.
That's The Brief
The FAA's new ATC workforce plan is a number the industry needs to watch carefully, both because the staffing gap has direct operational implications and because the dispute between the agency and NATCA over the methodology is not resolved. Wheels Up's Q1 transition story is the most complete example in the current market of what a voluntary structural reset looks like. Fuel is holding steady at elevated levels heading into the busiest travel weekend of the spring. And if you're flying east this weekend, brief thoroughly and plan for weather.
The Week in One Sentence: The FAA released a 2026-2028 ATC workforce plan targeting 12,563 controllers that immediately drew union pushback over a revised staffing model, Wheels Up completed its fleet transition 18 months ahead of schedule with 99% completion rate and a Delta-backed $100 million financing commitment, FBO Jet-A held at $7.96 per gallon nationally heading into a Memorial Day weekend with IFR conditions forecast across the eastern half of the country, and year-to-date bizav departures are tracking 4.6% ahead of 2025's pace.
