How to Become an Air Traffic Controller: Requirements, Training & the FAA Hiring Process

Jump to:

• What Does an ATC Do
• Minimum Requirements for ATC Training
• Routes to Becoming an Air Traffic Controller
• ATC Essential Skills
• FAA Application Process
• Common Challenges
• FAA Salary and Benefits
• USA vs. Canada: How Hiring Compares
• FAQs

An air traffic controller directs the safe, orderly, and efficient flow of aircraft, guiding pilots during takeoff and landing, managing traffic on runways, and monitoring aircraft from the moment they leave the gate to the moment they land.

The scale of the job is significant. The FAA employs more than 14,000 controllers working across over 400 locations nationwide, monitoring roughly 50,000 flights a day during peak travel periods and safeguarding an estimated 2.9 million daily passengers.

Depending on the facility, the day-to-day work looks different:

• Airport Control Towers issue takeoff and landing clearances and communicate with pilots during climb and taxi.
• Terminal Radar Approach Control (TRACON) facilities guide aircraft through the first and last stages of a flight, keeping planes safely separated as they approach or leave an airport’s airspace.
• Air Route Traffic Control Centers (ARTCCs) manage high-altitude flights across large stretches of airspace, handing planes off between facilities as they cross the country.

Before you can train as an air traffic controller, whether through the FAA Academy, a CTI school, or the military, you’ll need to clear the FAA’s baseline air traffic controller requirements:

• Citizenship: Be a U.S. citizen.
• Age: Be under 31 at the time your application closes (this ceiling doesn’t apply if you have at least one full year of civilian or military ATC experience).
• Language: Be fluent in English.
• Location: Be willing to relocate to an FAA facility.

If you’re specifically considering air traffic controller schooling through an AT-CTI program, there are program-level details worth knowing before you enroll:

• AT-CTI schools offer two or four-year non-engineering aviation degrees that include air traffic control and aviation administration coursework.
• Graduating an AT-CTI program lets you bypass the Air Traffic Basics Course, the first five weeks of qualification training at the FAA Academy in Oklahoma City.
• A smaller set of schools carry the separate Enhanced AT-CTI designation. Graduates of these specific programs can bypass the FAA Academy altogether and move straight into facility-based training.

No CTI program, standard or enhanced, guarantees a job. Every graduate still has to apply for an FAA hiring announcement, pass the ATSA, and clear medical, security, and background requirements like any other applicant.

All civilian ATCs in the United States are employees of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). The FAA posts job listings for both trainee and experienced Air Traffic Control Specialists every few months.

The Federal Aviation Administration employs around 14,000 ATCs, including terminal, airport, and en route controllers. About 2,000 join the force yearly to compensate for ATCs retiring or leaving.

Openings for ATC positions are listed on USAJobs. The requirements for joining the FAA as an Air Traffic Control Specialist may change between listings, depending on several factors.

Let's go over the different routes to becoming an FAA controller.

Many ATC listings require past educational experience, past progressively responsible work experience, or a combination of both, as part of the FAA’s air traffic controller requirements for a given hiring announcement.

If you’re qualifying on education alone, you’ll need documentation showing you completed a four-year bachelor’s degree in any field from an accredited institution.

Alternatively, the FAA runs a collaborative project with schools nationwide called the Air Traffic-Collegiate Training Initiative (AT-CTI) Program, the main path for air traffic controller schooling outside the military. CTI programs are two or four-year aviation degrees that include air traffic control and aviation administration coursework.

Graduating a CTI program doesn’t guarantee a job in an air traffic control facility. CTI graduates are still required to apply for an FAA hiring announcement and go through the same application process as any other candidate.

A CTI certification does give you a practical edge once you’re in the pipeline: any AT-CTI graduate bypasses the Air Traffic Basics Course, the first five weeks of qualification training at the FAA Academy. Graduates of schools with the separate Enhanced AT-CTI designation go further, bypassing the Academy entirely and moving straight into facility-based air traffic controller training.

You can skip both the college degree and the FAA Academy Basic Training by gaining ATC Work Experience through the military, such as the US Air Force. Any ATC experience will continue to be relevant for five years after you are finished. You can be an ATC through the Army (Military Occupational Specialty 15Q),  Air Force  (1c1x1), Navy, or Marine Corps (7257).

All four branches will get you a Control Tower Operator (CTO) credential and Veterans’ Preference when applying with the civilian FAA.

If you’re joining the military as an ATC, you’ll likely need to pass the ASVAB exam first.

Meeting the air traffic controller requirements on paper is only part of the job. The role also demands a specific mix of cognitive and interpersonal skills that the FAA tests directly through the ATSA:

• Sustained attention and vigilance means tracking multiple aircraft continuously over long shifts without losing focus.
• Rapid decision-making under pressure means weighing several moving variables at once and acting quickly, with no room to second-guess a call once traffic is close.
• Spatial reasoning means visualizing where aircraft are relative to each other and to the airspace around them, often from more than one perspective at once.
• Working memory means holding several numbers, callsigns, and instructions in mind at the same time without writing them down.
• Clear, concise verbal communication means giving pilots instructions that are unambiguous the first time, since there’s rarely time for a pilot to ask you to repeat yourself.
• Multitasking and set-shifting means managing several aircraft or tasks in parallel and switching between them without losing track of any one of them.

Meeting the air traffic controller requirements doesn’t guarantee a career with the FAA. The agency now runs hiring as a five-phase process, and ATC hopefuls have to clear all five: applying, passing a challenging cognitive assessment, clearing medical and security screening, completing FAA Academy training, and finishing on-the-job training.

Here’s how the FAA’s current process breaks down:

The first step is submitting your application to an FAA hiring announcement on USAJobs. The application window for inexperienced candidates typically opens once a year, usually between April and July. Build your application profile and your resume using the USAJobs resume builder to make sure your experience is calculated correctly, capped at two pages.

Get the full list of required documents (transcripts, a CTI endorsement letter, or a DD Form 214 for veterans’ preference) on the official FAA page.

Candidates who meet the minimum air traffic controller requirements receive an invitation to schedule and complete the ATSA exam, a challenging pre-employment test. The FAA administers it through Pearson VUE at designated testing centers, and it lasts about 3.5 hours.

Many questions on the ATSA are unique and won’t be found in any other test. Preparation matters, since only top scorers pass and move on to the next phase (an estimated 2.5–6%, per our own data). We recommend getting familiar with the test format and practicing well before your exam date, ideally starting at least a month out.

Once ATSA scores are calculated, the highest-scoring candidates move forward in the hiring process. From there, applicants go through:

• A security clearance
• Federal background check
• Drug testing
• A physical exam
• A psychological examination
• A medical examination
• Fingerprinting

Timing for this phase varies by candidate and location and isn’t publicly fixed by the FAA.

Becoming a fully Certified Professional Controller (CPC) is a multi-year commitment that starts with the FAA Academy and continues at your assigned facility.

New trainees attend the FAA Academy in Oklahoma City for several months of option-specific (terminal or en route) initial air traffic controller training, combining classroom instruction on regulations and procedures, radar simulations, and hands-on exercises. Trainees are paid $22.61/hr during Academy training, with full health and housing benefits provided.

How much of the Academy you attend depends on your path in: standard AT-CTI graduates skip the first five weeks (the Air Traffic Basics Course), Enhanced AT-CTI graduates and most military-experienced candidates bypass the Academy entirely, and everyone else attends the full program.

After the Academy, trainees are assigned to an ATC facility nationwide, where they complete 1 to 3 years of on-the-job training under a certified controller, progressively certifying on different positions and sectors within that facility through a mix of written and practical evaluations. Only after clearing every position does a trainee become a fully Certified Professional Controller (CPC), able to work independently.

Becoming an air traffic controller is as demanding as it is rewarding. Here’s an honest look at what candidates and working controllers commonly find hardest:

• A genuinely low first hurdle. An estimated 2.5–6% of ATSA candidates pass and move forward (per our own data), so the ATSA itself is often the biggest single obstacle in the whole process.
• A real chance of not finishing the Academy. Not every trainee who’s accepted completes Academy training, even after clearing the ATSA and medical and security screening.
• Irregular, high-alertness shift work. Shifts can’t run longer than 10 hours, and back-to-back shifts aren’t allowed, specifically because sustained focus in this job is safety-critical.
• A shorter career runway than most professions. Air traffic controllers face a mandatory retirement age, with some eligible to retire as early as age 50 after 20 years of service, which compresses the window to build seniority compared to most federal careers.
• Financial restrictions tied to the job. Controllers can’t accept discounts from airlines that aren’t offered to the public and can’t hold individual airline stock, since either could be seen as a conflict of interest.

The estimated average pay for air traffic controllers in the FAA is about 124,421$ per year (according to Indeed). The air traffic controller salary range is broad, with most ATCs being paid between $73,590 and $189,800 annually. The expected salary depends on various factors such as the locality level (compensation for high-cost living areas), facility level (the complexity of airspace and operations the facility handles), and the ATC level of experience. Previous college/work experience does not influence ATC pay.

Based on the U.S. Department of Labor reports of air traffic controller pay in May 2022.

Premium pay rates are also added to air traffic controllers' pay for various factors such as holidays, night shifts, and overtime. 

Check ATC pay by facility and premium rates.

Air traffic controllers get a minimum of 23 vacation days per year. As they build seniority, that number jumps to 36. They also receive full health, vision, and dental coverage, along with life insurance, savings plan and a comprehensive retirement plan.

Due to the stressful nature of the work, shifts cannot last longer than 10 hours, and back-to-back shifts are not allowed.

More about these benefits and perks can be found on the official FAA page. 

If you’re weighing how to become an air traffic controller in the US against training with NAV CANADA, whether because you hold dual citizenship, you’re open to relocating, or you’re simply comparing options, here’s how the two paths actually differ.