Career as an Air Traffic Controller

ANYBODY WHO HAS EVER WILED away an hour or two in an airport has spent at least a few minutes wondering how it all works. Enormous aircraft pick up and drop off thousands of passengers all day long, taxiing across runways and aprons on a rigid schedule and doing it so safely that collisions are vanishingly rare. The same aircraft take off and land within minutes of each other, crowding the skies above airports with airborne traffic jams that somehow always manage to keep moving. When they fly thousands of miles to their destinations, pilots almost never make wrong turns. Earthbound highways do not even come close to this level of safety and efficiency. Air traffic control is one of the professions that keeps the modern world in motion. No longer the province of the wealthy, air travel is now the preferred means to cover long distances, and a vital part of conducting business. The number of passenger miles flown has increased steadily for decades, with more people spending more time in the air every year. Demand for pilots, flight attendants, mechanics and other air travel professionals has increased along with the demand for their services. Demand for air traffic controllers has been especially strong. Demand goes both ways in the air traffic control career. With a median salary of about $125,000 per year and enviable fringe benefits, many people are competing for jobs as air traffic controllers. About 25,000 people work as air traffic controllers today. Most of them work for the Federal Aviation Administration, or FAA. By federal law, all of them were trained by the FAA even if they went on to work somewhere else. Every year thousands of people take the test to get into the FAA training program, and most of them end up on a list so the FAA can call them when a position opens up in a class. The list is so long that a number of these people find other jobs while they are waiting and never become air traffic controllers. Take careful note of the information contained in this report. In it you will find sections covering everything from how to prepare for your career as an air traffic controller and what kind of education and training you will need, to what you may like and dislike about the career. If you like what you read here be sure to check out the list of additional resources on the last page of this report. There, you will find even more information to help you learn all you can about a career as an air traffic controller.