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Control air traffic on and within vicinity of airport, and movement of air traffic between altitude sectors and control centers, according to established procedures and policies. Authorize, regulate, and control commercial airline flights according to government or company regulations to expedite and ensure flight safety.
Communication skills. Air traffic controllers must be able to give clear, concise instructions, listen carefully to pilots’ requests, and respond by speaking clearly in English.
Decision-making skills. Controllers must make quick decisions. For example, when a pilot requests a change of altitude to avoid poor weather, the controller must respond quickly to ensure the aircraft’s safety.
Detail oriented. Controllers must be able to concentrate while multiple conversations occur at once. For example, in a large airport tower, several controllers may be speaking with different pilots at the same time.
Math skills. Controllers must be able to do arithmetic accurately and quickly. They often need to compute speeds, times, and distances, and they recommend heading and altitude changes.
Organizational skills. Controllers must be able to coordinate the actions of multiple flights and to prioritize tasks, because they may be required to guide several pilots at the same time.
Problem-solving skills. Controllers must be able to understand complex situations, review changing circumstances, and provide pilots with appropriate alternatives.
Teamwork. Controllers must be able to work as members of a team, cooperating with and assisting others in and around their area of responsibility.
| A3 | Your Strengths | Importance |
Characteristics of this Career |
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91% | Stress Tolerance - Job requires accepting criticism and dealing calmly and effectively with high-stress situations. | |
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91% | Attention to Detail - Job requires being careful about detail and thorough in completing work tasks. | |
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86% | Dependability - Job requires being reliable, responsible, and dependable, and fulfilling obligations. | |
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85% | Adaptability/Flexibility - Job requires being open to change (positive or negative) and to considerable variety in the workplace. | |
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84% | Persistence - Job requires persistence in the face of obstacles. | |
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82% | Analytical Thinking - Job requires analyzing information and using logic to address work-related issues and problems. | |
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82% | Achievement/Effort - Job requires establishing and maintaining personally challenging achievement goals and exerting effort toward mastering tasks. | |
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82% | Self-Control - Job requires maintaining composure, keeping emotions in check, controlling anger, and avoiding aggressive behavior, even in very difficult situations. | |
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78% | Cooperation - Job requires being pleasant with others on the job and displaying a good-natured, cooperative attitude. | |
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78% | Initiative - Job requires a willingness to take on responsibilities and challenges. | |
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78% | Integrity - Job requires being honest and ethical. | |
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69% | Independence - Job requires developing one's own ways of doing things, guiding oneself with little or no supervision, and depending on oneself to get things done. | |
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69% | Leadership - Job requires a willingness to lead, take charge, and offer opinions and direction. | |
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66% | Concern for Others - Job requires being sensitive to others' needs and feelings and being understanding and helpful on the job. |
| A3 | Your Strengths | Importance |
Strengths |
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89% | Enterprising - Work involves managing, negotiating, marketing, or selling, typically in a business setting, or leading or advising people in political and legal situations. Enterprising occupations are often associated with business initiatives, sales, marketing/advertising, finance, management/administration, professional advising, public speaking, politics, or law. | |
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83% | Conventional - Work involves following procedures and regulations to organize information or data, typically in a business setting. Conventional occupations are often associated with office work, accounting, mathematics/statistics, information technology, finance, or human resources. |
| A3 | Your Strengths | Importance |
Values of the Work Environment |
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83% | Support - Occupations that satisfy this work value offer supportive management that stands behind employees. Corresponding needs are Company Policies, Supervision: Human Relations and Supervision: Technical. | |
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72% | Working Conditions - Occupations that satisfy this work value offer job security and good working conditions. Corresponding needs are Activity, Compensation, Independence, Security, Variety and Working Conditions. | |
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72% | Independence - Occupations that satisfy this work value allow employees to work on their own and make decisions. Corresponding needs are Creativity, Responsibility and Autonomy. | |
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67% | Achievement - Occupations that satisfy this work value are results oriented and allow employees to use their strongest abilities, giving them a feeling of accomplishment. Corresponding needs are Ability Utilization and Achievement. | |
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67% | Recognition - Occupations that satisfy this work value offer advancement, potential for leadership, and are often considered prestigious. Corresponding needs are Advancement, Authority, Recognition and Social Status. |
| A3 | Your Strengths | Importance |
Abilities | Cognitive, Physical, Personality |
|---|---|---|---|
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94% | Problem Sensitivity - The ability to tell when something is wrong or is likely to go wrong. It does not involve solving the problem, only recognizing that there is a problem. | |
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91% | Oral Comprehension - The ability to listen to and understand information and ideas presented through spoken words and sentences. | |
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91% | Oral Expression - The ability to communicate information and ideas in speaking so others will understand. | |
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88% | Selective Attention - The ability to concentrate on a task over a period of time without being distracted. | |
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85% | Deductive Reasoning - The ability to apply general rules to specific problems to produce answers that make sense. | |
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81% | Speed of Closure - The ability to quickly make sense of, combine, and organize information into meaningful patterns. | |
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81% | Inductive Reasoning - The ability to combine pieces of information to form general rules or conclusions (includes finding a relationship among seemingly unrelated events). | |
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81% | Flexibility of Closure - The ability to identify or detect a known pattern (a figure, object, word, or sound) that is hidden in other distracting material. | |
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78% | Near Vision - The ability to see details at close range (within a few feet of the observer). | |
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78% | Speech Clarity - The ability to speak clearly so others can understand you. | |
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78% | Perceptual Speed - The ability to quickly and accurately compare similarities and differences among sets of letters, numbers, objects, pictures, or patterns. The things to be compared may be presented at the same time or one after the other. This ability also includes comparing a presented object with a remembered object. | |
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78% | Far Vision - The ability to see details at a distance. | |
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78% | Time Sharing - The ability to shift back and forth between two or more activities or sources of information (such as speech, sounds, touch, or other sources). | |
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75% | Information Ordering - The ability to arrange things or actions in a certain order or pattern according to a specific rule or set of rules (e.g., patterns of numbers, letters, words, pictures, mathematical operations). | |
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75% | Speech Recognition - The ability to identify and understand the speech of another person. | |
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72% | Written Comprehension - The ability to read and understand information and ideas presented in writing. | |
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66% | Category Flexibility - The ability to generate or use different sets of rules for combining or grouping things in different ways. |
| A3 | Your Strengths | Importance |
Attributes & Percentage of Time Spent |
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98% | Frequency of Decision Making - How frequently is the worker required to make decisions that affect other people, the financial resources, and/or the image and reputation of the organization? | |
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97% | Indoors, Environmentally Controlled - How often does this job require working indoors in environmentally controlled conditions? | |
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96% | Importance of Being Exact or Accurate - How important is being very exact or highly accurate in performing this job? | |
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96% | Impact of Decisions on Co-workers or Company Results - What results do your decisions usually have on other people or the image or reputation or financial resources of your employer? | |
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95% | Work With Work Group or Team - How important is it to work with others in a group or team in this job? | |
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93% | Contact With Others - How much does this job require the worker to be in contact with others (face-to-face, by telephone, or otherwise) in order to perform it? | |
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92% | Importance of Repeating Same Tasks - How important is repeating the same physical activities (e.g., key entry) or mental activities (e.g., checking entries in a ledger) over and over, without stopping, to performing this job? | |
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86% | Spend Time Sitting - How much does this job require sitting? | |
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85% | Frequency of Conflict Situations - How often are there conflict situations the employee has to face in this job? | |
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82% | Freedom to Make Decisions - How much decision making freedom, without supervision, does the job offer? | |
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82% | Physical Proximity - To what extent does this job require the worker to perform job tasks in close physical proximity to other people? | |
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81% | Deal With External Customers - How important is it to work with external customers or the public in this job? | |
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80% | Consequence of Error - How serious would the result usually be if the worker made a mistake that was not readily correctable? | |
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79% | Spend Time Using Your Hands to Handle, Control, or Feel Objects, Tools, or Controls - How much does this job require using your hands to handle, control, or feel objects, tools or controls? | |
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78% | Coordinate or Lead Others - How important is it to coordinate or lead others in accomplishing work activities in this job? | |
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78% | Face-to-Face Discussions - How often do you have to have face-to-face discussions with individuals or teams in this job? | |
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73% | Structured versus Unstructured Work - To what extent is this job structured for the worker, rather than allowing the worker to determine tasks, priorities, and goals? | |
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71% | Telephone - How often do you have telephone conversations in this job? |
| A3 | Your Strengths | Importance |
Tasks & Values |
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96% | Making Decisions and Solving Problems - Analyzing information and evaluating results to choose the best solution and solve problems. | |
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90% | Identifying Objects, Actions, and Events - Identifying information by categorizing, estimating, recognizing differences or similarities, and detecting changes in circumstances or events. | |
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89% | Getting Information - Observing, receiving, and otherwise obtaining information from all relevant sources. | |
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81% | Monitoring Processes, Materials, or Surroundings - Monitoring and reviewing information from materials, events, or the environment, to detect or assess problems. | |
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80% | Communicating with Supervisors, Peers, or Subordinates - Providing information to supervisors, co-workers, and subordinates by telephone, in written form, e-mail, or in person. | |
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80% | Processing Information - Compiling, coding, categorizing, calculating, tabulating, auditing, or verifying information or data. | |
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78% | Training and Teaching Others - Identifying the educational needs of others, developing formal educational or training programs or classes, and teaching or instructing others. | |
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78% | Updating and Using Relevant Knowledge - Keeping up-to-date technically and applying new knowledge to your job. | |
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75% | Analyzing Data or Information - Identifying the underlying principles, reasons, or facts of information by breaking down information or data into separate parts. | |
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73% | Thinking Creatively - Developing, designing, or creating new applications, ideas, relationships, systems, or products, including artistic contributions. | |
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73% | Organizing, Planning, and Prioritizing Work - Developing specific goals and plans to prioritize, organize, and accomplish your work. | |
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73% | Evaluating Information to Determine Compliance with Standards - Using relevant information and individual judgment to determine whether events or processes comply with laws, regulations, or standards. | |
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66% | Performing for or Working Directly with the Public - Performing for people or dealing directly with the public. This includes serving customers in restaurants and stores, and receiving clients or guests. |
Air traffic controllers coordinate the movement of aircraft, including within the vicinity of airports and between altitude sectors and control centers, so that they maintain safe distances.
Air traffic controllers typically do the following:
Air traffic controllers’ primary concern is safety, but they also must direct aircraft efficiently to minimize delays. They manage the flow of aircraft into and out of the airport airspace, guide pilots during takeoff and landing, and monitor aircraft as they travel through the skies. Air traffic controllers use radio equipment to communicate with pilots. They also use radar, computers, and other visual references to monitor and direct aircraft movement in the skies and on airport grounds.
Controllers usually manage multiple aircraft at the same time. For example, a controller might direct one aircraft on its landing approach while providing another aircraft with weather information.
The following are examples of types of air traffic controllers:
Tower controllers direct the movement of aircraft and other vehicles, such as snowplows, on runways and taxiways. They check flight plans, give pilots clearance for takeoff or landing, and direct the flow of aircraft and ground traffic in their area of responsibility. Most observe from control towers, managing traffic from the airport to a radius of 3 to 30 miles out.
Approach and departure controllers ensure that aircraft traveling within an airport’s airspace maintain minimum separation for safety. These controllers give pilots clearances to enter controlled airspace and hand off control of aircraft to en route controllers. They also inform pilots about weather conditions and other critical notices. Terminal approach and departure controllers work in buildings known as Terminal Radar Approach Control Centers (TRACONs). They assist an aircraft until it reaches the edge of a facility’s airspace, usually about 20 to 50 miles from the airport and up to about 17,000 feet in the air.
En route controllers monitor aircraft that leave an airport’s airspace. They work at en route traffic control centers located throughout the country, which typically are not located at airports. Each center is assigned an airspace based on the geography and air traffic in the area in which it is located. As an aircraft approaches and flies through a center’s airspace, en route controllers guide it along its route. They may adjust the flight path for safety reasons, such as to avoid collision with another aircraft. En route controllers direct aircraft for the bulk of the flight before handing off oversight to terminal approach controllers.
Some air traffic controllers work at the Air Traffic Control Systems Command Center, where they monitor traffic within the entire national airspace. When they identify a bottleneck, they provide instructions to other controllers to help prevent traffic jams. Their objective is to keep traffic levels manageable for the airports and for en route controllers.
Air traffic controllers held about 23,000 jobs in 2022. The largest employers of air traffic controllers were as follows:
| Federal government | 91% |
| Support activities for air transportation | 5 |
Most controllers work for the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).
Most air traffic controllers work in control towers, approach control facilities, or en route centers. Many tower controllers and approach and departure controllers work near large airports. En route controllers work in secure office buildings across the country, which typically are not located at airports.
Most controllers work in semidark rooms. The aircraft they control appear as points of light moving across their radar screens, and a well-lit room would make it difficult to see the screens properly.
Air traffic controllers must remain focused and react quickly to conditions that change frequently. Being responsible for the safety of aircraft and their passengers may be stressful and exhausting. To prevent burnout, the FAA requires controllers to retire at age 56.
Most air traffic controllers work full time. The FAA regulates the hours that an air traffic controller may work. Controllers may not work more than 10 straight hours during a shift, which includes required breaks, and must have 9 hours of rest before their next shift.
Major airports may operate control towers on a 24-hour basis. Controllers who work at these facilities may work day, evening, or night shifts that include weekends and holidays. Small airports or those that are less busy may have towers that do not operate around the clock. Controllers at these facilities may have standard work schedules.
There are several different paths to becoming an air traffic controller. Candidates typically need an associate's or bachelor’s degree through a Federal Aviation Administration (FAA)-approved Air Traffic Collegiate Training Initiative (AT-CTI) program, several years of progressively responsible work experience, or a combination of education and experience.
In addition, prospective air traffic controllers must be U.S. citizens and must pass a medical evaluation, background check, and FAA preemployment tests, including the Air Traffic Controller Specialists Skills Assessment Battery (ATSA). They also must complete a training course at the FAA Academy and apply before the FAA's age cutoff.
Once hired, controllers typically complete on-the-job training that lasts more than 12 months. They also must pass a physical exam each year, a job performance exam twice a year, and periodic drug screenings.
Air traffic controllers typically need an associate's or a bachelor's degree. To qualify with an associate's degree, candidates must complete their studies in an AT-CTI program. A bachelor's degree may be in any field, including transportation, business, or engineering.
The FAA sets guidelines for schools that offer the AT-CTI program. AT-CTI schools offer 2- or 4-year degrees that are designed to prepare students for a career in air traffic control. The curriculum is not standardized, but courses focus on subjects that are fundamental to aviation, including airspace, clearances, chart reading, and federal regulations.
Most newly hired air traffic controllers are trained at the FAA Academy in Oklahoma City. The length of training varies with the candidate’s background. Candidates must apply before the FAA's age cutoff.
After graduating from the Academy, trainees are assigned to an air traffic control facility as developmental controllers until they complete requirements for becoming a certified air traffic controller. Developmental controllers begin their careers by supplying pilots with basic flight data and airport information. They then may advance to positions within the control room that have more responsibility.
With additional training, controllers may switch from one area of specialization to another. For example, a controller may complete training to transfer from working in an en route center to an airport tower.
Air traffic controllers sometimes qualify through work experience instead of a degree. Candidates either need up to 3 years of progressively responsible generalized work experience that demonstrates the potential for learning and performing air traffic control work or must have specialized work experience in a military or civilian air traffic control facility.
Air traffic controllers who learn their skills in the military are eligible to become civilian air traffic controllers even if their age exceeds the FAA cutoff for applicants.
All air traffic controllers must hold an Air Traffic Control Tower Operator Certificate or be appropriately qualified and supervised as stated in Title 14 of the Code of Federal Regulations, Part 65.
Employment of air traffic controllers is projected to show little or no change from 2022 to 2032.
Despite limited employment growth, about 2,000 openings for air traffic controllers are projected each year, on average, over the decade. Most of those openings are expected to result from the need to replace workers who transfer to different occupations or exit the labor force, such as to retire.
Although air traffic is projected to increase in the coming years, the satellite-based Next Generation Air Transportation System (NextGen) is expected to allow individual controllers to handle more air traffic. As a result, the demand for additional air traffic controllers should be somewhat limited over the projections decade.
For more information about air traffic controllers, visit
Air Traffic Control Association
Federal Aviation Administration
National Air Traffic Controllers Association
Professional Women Controllers Inc.
For air traffic control occupational requirements from the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM), visit
OPM Classification & Qualifications
For application information about air traffic control specialists, visit
This table shows a list of occupations with job duties that are similar to those of air traffic controllers.
| Occupation | Job Duties | Entry-Level Education | Median Annual Pay, May 2022 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Airline and Commercial Pilots |
Airline and commercial pilots fly and navigate airplanes, helicopters, and other aircraft. |
See How to Become One | $148,900 |
|
Public Safety Telecommunicators |
Public safety telecommunicators, including 911 operators and fire dispatchers, answer emergency and nonemergency calls and provide resources to assist those in need. |
High school diploma or equivalent | $46,900 |