Air traffic controllers may get pay hike as Trump admin looks to boost recruitment

Air traffic controllers are set to receive a 30% pay hike as President Donald Trump's administration seeks to boost recruitment Thursday.

"Currently, students are paid $17.61 an hour. By the way, you might be able to go to Walgreens and make that, right? So we're going to bump it up to $22.84 an hour," Duffy said. 

Duffy noted that the pay increase plan will require Congress to approve "billions" in additional funding for the DOT.

Elon Musk also sent out a request for retired air traffic controllers to return to work.

Most recently, a Southwest airliner narrowly avoided a collision with a Flexjet business jet on a runway in Chicago. The Southwest plane was coming in for landing as the Flexjet, allegedly ignoring instructions from air traffic control, crossed the landing strip.

Pilots in the Southwest plane were able to take off again quickly enough to avoid a collision.

The National Transportation Safety Board says it is still investigating Tuesday's incident. Trump himself called for the Flexjet pilots to have their licenses revoked if the investigation exposes wrongdoing.