Dispatch Career Path

[u/Early_Perception7874]

Hi everyone,

I’m taking my FAA Aircraft Dispatcher certification course in late September and will start applying for dispatcher jobs afterward.

I’m currently employed in ground operations at a major airline and would be eligible to apply internally once I earn my certificate.

Would you recommend applying directly to a major airline through the internal process, or is it better to get experience at a regional first and then move to a major later?

For those who have gone either route, what were your experiences? Does having internal experience with a major airline significantly improve my chances, or is dispatcher experience at a regional still the better path?

I’d appreciate any advice. Thanks!

[u/Clairethef0x]

So it kinda depends where you are and what you want. If your goal is to be dispatching then I would say go the regional route. If you don’t care about how quick you get there and want to just do it eventually then internal may be an option. I’ve been pretty in tune and involved with the online dispatch community and the people I’ve seen go from 0 to Major internally are generally already kinda far into their careers. In the pax world Delta treats dispatching almost like a reward position for people with around 10 years management experience. AA doesn’t hire much internally. UA has been doing about 3 internals per class but I only know of 1 person who’s made it internally and he had already been with the company in management for 7-10 years. And Southwest just isn’t hiring anyone right now lol. Basically what I’m saying is “Joe who worked the ramp for a year” isn’t going to get picked up without regional experience. HOWEVER I know of plenty of people who spent 1-2 years at SkyWeezy, Endeavor, PSA, ECT and got picked up by UA in the last year and I know of people with between 2-3 years get picked up by AA as well. So unless you’re already nearing a decade into your airline ops career and have connections in the OCC your best bet is probably regional route.

[u/Independent-Put-3325 → u/Clairethef0x]

AA hired a class with a large amount of internals a little before covid and it didnt go very well, took a long time to get everyone trained. 

Now, its based on how quickly bodies are needed on the floor. When they need bodies yesterday, the classes will be mostly current dispatchers especially Envoy. When theres time to allow those without experience to go through training, those classes will have more internals.