These days he works in the control tower at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport. But he may soon become part of an exodus of controllers from the work force, a legacy of those departures nearly three decades ago.

Mr. Pearson, who is also a lawyer and a professor of aviation law at Arizona State University, will turn 50 next year and is considering retiring. Thousands of other controllers are also weighing such a move. Controllers must retire at 56, although they are allowed to retire earlier if they have 25 years of service (or 20 years if they are at least 50).

Because of this retirement bubble, the F.A.A. is in the midst of a hiring surge that began in 2005; its Air Traffic Control Workforce plan has set a goal of hiring 17,000 controllers by 2017.

About 15,000 air traffic controllers are now employed in the United States, including about 6,000 who have been hired since 2005, said Hank Krakowski, chief operating officer for the F.A.A.’s air traffic organization. The agency’s workforce plan calls for 1,900 to be hired this year; 500 are now in training at the F.A.A. Academy.

Another factor driving hiring is a planned modernization of the air traffic control system. When controllers leave their posts to train on new systems, added personnel will be needed to fill their spots.

Training to be an air traffic controller can take years. Applicants must be under 30 and have either a minimum of a high school diploma and three years of full-time work experience or four years of college. (Some combination of the three can be acceptable as well.)

About 70 percent of applicants have come from the military’s air traffic control system or have completed the F.A.A. Air Traffic Collegiate Training Initiative Program, offered nationwide at 13 colleges and universities.