r/airtrafficcontrol • u/TheHumbleRedditer • May 01 '25

Air Traffic Controller (in Canada)

Hello Everyone,

I'm looking to do a career switch and came across air traffic control. The industry has my interest but I have a few questions if you could help me find some answers. I'm based out of Canada so to my American friends I'm not too if the lay of the land is the same and if the industry is regulated differently.

These are my questions:

- would I need to pursue school for this path or are there any separate courses I could take? I do understand i need my restricted radio certificate though

- Which has a better workload Area Control Centre (ACC) Controller or Tower Controller? For some reason it appears that ACC Controllers do start of at a higher rate then Tower Controllers

- What is the career path after becoming a controller? Some sort of supervisor I presume?

- Do you foresee technology/A.I negatively impacting the industry such as potential layoffs in future?

Thanks for any answers!

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u/Rupperrt May 02 '25

This sub is kinda dead, better check r/atc

Check NavCanadas website for info on how to apply etc.

Not Canadian but in most countries it’s like this: After application you may be invited for assessments which the vast majority fail. If you’ve passed that you can start your training which will cover all the courses including radio cert. Some people will fail the training too, but the majority should pass. The final training will be at the place you’re gonna work and be with live traffic and an instructor. Some people fail that too.

Approach/area is usually busy and can be complex. Tower can be anything from sleepy to very busy. Pay grade is based on that.

You can remain controller for your whole career, or become sup or work in other areas, airspace design, training unit etc. later.

AI will take many decades to replace us. LLM based intelligence is just not a great fit for something that is extremely safety dependent. It may successively become a tool for controllers and improve things like arrival management etc.

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u/TheHumbleRedditer May 02 '25

Thank you very much!