Air Traffic Out of Control
Single Delegate Specialized Committee
atcfaa@uclamun.org
Committee Summary
Topic: Federal Aviation Administration Air Traffic Control Meltdown (2025)
Committee Summary:
Members of the Aviation Community,
Our nation’s aviation industry is falling apart as we speak. Delegates will represent divisions of the FAA, major airlines, controller unions, airport authorities, tech innovators, and congressional watchdogs in a world where pressure never lifts, and every decision echoes at 30,000 feet in international airspace.
The issues at hand are far and wide. Delegates must pick and choose their battles, going all in on some issues and sacrificing others for compromise. In the ATC realm, a nationwide controller shortage threatens to push an already strained workforce past its limits, and nothing has been done to address the situation. On the taxiways and in the sky, aging aviation systems clash with ambitious NextGen upgrades, leaving dangerous gaps for cyberattacks, system outages, or near-miss events to slip through. Some events already have, with the recent crises of manufacturing malfunctions through Boeing and Airbus and crashes within the nation’s busiest airspaces. The rise of drones, autonomous aircraft, and expanding spaceflight corridors crowd an airspace that is no longer built for future innovation. And the question looms: should the United States stay with a public, government-run Air Traffic Control system, or should the nation consider privatizing the entire industry?
Delegates must negotiate staffing reforms, funding battles, and modernization pushes while reacting to ground stops, radar blackouts, airline meltdowns that can alter the committee’s trajectory in seconds. In this room, you aren’t just discussing aviation policy. You’re holding the safety of millions in your hands, and the clock is always ticking.
Meet The Staff
Austin Cheng
Chair
Dear Delegates,
Welcome to LAMUN XXI! My name is Austin Cheng and I am thrilled to be your Chair, alongside your CD, Noah, for this air-mazing committee.
I am a senior here at UCLA majoring in Psychobiology and minoring in Social Thought. Outside of MUN, I am a researcher for the Marie and Alexander Shipman Cerebral Palsy Muscle lab and serve as the Chief Operations Officer for a service organization. In my free time, I enjoy exploring local trails, running, gymming, and playing board games with friends. Since I’m from Laguna Niguel, California, I am an avid beach goer. After graduation, I hope to work as a clinical researcher and eventually pursue a career in medicine!
This is now my fourth and final year of chairing LAMUN, and I am looking forward to ending my eight-year MUN career with all of you. I have participated in MUN since my freshman year of high school, where I represented Spain in WHO. Since then, I’ve been in much more diverse crisis and specialized committees, ranging from Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D vs. Agents of Hydra to the Harvest Festival in Parks and Recreation. I have found a particular passion for early-modern political committees, specifically about the rise of gun violence and other forms of political violence. In MUN at UCLA, I have participated as a committee chair for both BruinMUN and LAMUN. I am extremely grateful for the community I’ve found in this club, where I’ve met some of my closest friends here at UCLA!
As your chair, I aspire to create a cooperative committee filled with fruitful debate. To me, Model United Nations is the perfect blend between collaboration and learning about today’s global issues. Looking forward to meeting you all at LAMUN XXI and hearing about your creative solutions to the issues. Please don’t hesitate to email us with any questions.
Sincerely,
Austin Cheng
Chair | ATCFAA | LAMUN XXI
Noah Sorger
Crisis Director
Dear Delegates,
My name is Noah Sorger, and I am excited to be your Crisis Director for LAMUN XXI’s Air Traffic Control Committee! Austin and I are super hyped to make this a very memorable conference through all of the adventures that lie ahead of us.
I am currently a sophomore at UCLA studying Political Science, with ambitions of becoming a lawyer. I’m a California native from up North, around 30 minutes south of San Francisco (go Giants). I enjoy playing and watching sports, lifting, nature, good music, and flying planes – I should have my pilot’s license by the time you’re reading this, and I’ve loved planes since I was little. As you can probably guess, I was ecstatic that we could run this committee at LAMUN.
I’ve been involved in public speaking since middle school, with two solid years in Model UN before taking my talents to my high school Mock Trial team. For those of you who do Mock Trial, I was always a Defense Attorney, and I served as Captain and President of the team in my Senior Year, doubling our team’s membership and achieving our school’s best placing in history.
After high school, I wanted to get back into MUN and found the best place to do it here at UCLA. I joined in Winter Quarter of my freshman year, staffing LAMUN and travelling to earn my first gavel at UCBMUN. Earlier this year, I chaired a crisis committee at BruinMUN - our high school conference - about the Federal Republic of Central America. Outside of MUN at UCLA, I’m involved with a local sports law firm, UCLA’s Business Law and Investing Society, Bruin Aviation, Sigma Nu, and a lot of Intramural Sports.
I am incredibly excited to see the creative ways in which you delegates will attempt to solve the chaos that is the Federal Aviation Administration. We cannot wait to see you all in April, and please reach out with any questions, comments or concerns.
Sincerely,
Noah Sorger
Crisis Director | ATCFAA | LAMUN XXI