r/ATC

I have some questions on this. I’m in a tough and unique situation and looking for some guidance if anyone is willing to help. Someone from BAB or SUU would be a huge help. Thanks!

Anyone here been an OS that was forced into the ATM spot? Were you paid anything extra for that time as ATM? Or did you just have to do any the extra without anything extra. We have someone coming in on a solicitation of interest at some point but not sure when.

I want to be a controller and I’m trying to find a way in and I missed the FAA hiring off the street and military seems so mission focused that it’s about a 50/50 shot you even get a CTO any advice?

TLDR: realistic best case scenario for Air Traffic Controller prospects getting hired in 2025-2026.

37 year career = $1,430 weekly pension (Less than 1% of air Traffic Controllers will get this.)

Median wage and 26 year career = $750 weekly pension

“Thank you for 26 years of your life! Now enjoy your $750 a week! Enjoy retirement!”

(Purchasing power is annotated above not nominal wages… nominal wages may be $1,000,000 a year and a home may be $4,000,000-5,000,000 for median home… doesn’t matter about nominal wages… just purchasing power.)

(Long version)

I made a comment about this but since I ran the numbers I figured id share so the future prospects of FAA Air Traffic Controller understand what they can expect.

Realistically in Air Traffic Control you will fall in the median pay. The front of your career you will make less than median and by the end of your career, if everything goes well, you will make above the median. Yet over your entire career you will average out to the median. (Important to note, some may start at an ARTCC and make more than median every year as a CPC and others may never even make median ATC… even by the end of their career.)

The legal limit for Air Traffic Control is $228,000(as of 2026). That is literally the maximum salary you are allowed to have. But that will adjust over time…. More likely for the worse. For instance, the federal salary cap in 2004 was $158,100 and if you use the BLS inflation calculator

https://data.bls.gov/cgi-bin/cpicalc.pl?cost1=158%2C100&year1=200401&year2=202604

You will see that 158,100 adjusted for inflation to today would be worth $284,289. But the federal salary cap is now 228,000 not 284,289 (25% ish loss in buying power). That means you can assume over the next 22 years, (close to a career in ATC) you can expect to lose another 25% in buying power. So your buying power after a literal best case scenario would be equal to $171,000 (228,000/.75=171,000) buying power in today’s dollars. Obviously the nominal number will be higher but nominal wages are irrelevant, only purchasing power matters.

But remember that is a best case scenario, the median ATC wage today is $130,000. So if you retire making the “median wage” the purchasing power of those dollars will have diminished by 25% so you will retire with a $97,500 (again 97,500 in today’s purchasing power… your nominal wages may very well be $200,000 by the year 2048) in purchasing power and with how our retirement system works you would make (assuming you get hired at 30) 40% of your salary at retirement (assuming you went all the way to age 56 from the age of 30), 97,500*.40=39,000 which dividing the 39,000 over 52 weeks.

39,000/52=750

So you will have a pension as a median controller of $750 a week.

In today’s purchasing power.

Alternatively if you get hired at 20 (instead of 30) and really tried to squeeze out every inch of value from the system and worked on an extension to the age of 57, thus your percentage would be 1.4%*37=0.518… so 51.8% of you high 3 would be your pension/retirement. (Note: if you only work to 56 and not 57, which requires you to request an extension past the “mandatory retirement age” which could be denied” you would only make 1.4%*20=0.28+.16=0.44. So an age 56 retirement would be 44% not 51.8 (which happens at age 57.

I digress, in a best case scenario of 51.8% and assuming a median wage, which is 130,000$. 130,000 is todays median wage, every 22 years we can assume roughly (let’s low ball it so we get a best case scenario) 1% a year lost to inflation. You have a 37 year career so 130,000*.63=81,900. You take your buying power and multiply by your retirement percentage 81,900*.518=42,424.2

So you weekly check (52 weeks in a year)

42,424/52=815.846 weekly

… thank you for your 37 years of service as an Air Traffic Controller… take your weekly 815$ and enjoy the rest of your life!

Also, in an absolute best can scenario you take the 228,000*.63=143,640

143,640*.518=74,405.52

74,405/52=1,430.865

So in an absolute best case scenario. We are talking about spending your whole career in a high level facility (and high locality, just because you have a high level facility doesn’t guarantee being the the federal salary cap.) and getting approved for an extension. We are talking about the equivalent level of luck of how a wide body airline captains can making $1,000,000 in a year if they no life the airlines and max out every possible thing and have a little bit of luck in the process type of luck.

So Lucky as an airline pilot you take home $1,000,000 a year.

Lucky for Air Traffic Control would be equal to making

$1,430 a week in retirement.

Again, this is in purchasing power, your nominal wages will probably double. So the median ATC wage will probably be 130,000*2=260,000 and the federal salary cap will also double 228,000*2=456,000. But 456,000 will only have the purchasing power of $74,405 in today’s dollars.

If you don’t understand those numbers… you are the perfect candidate for the FAA. Don’t worry, you will understand once you are half way through your career and to committed to the career to quit and do something else.

I genuinely believe you will be much better off in a different career but now you know the history of our pay as it spirals down and what you have to look forward to. You can now make an informed decision.

Any controllers formally diagnosed with psoriasis that I can ask some questions about the AME and special issuance
Current controller looking for advice

Any insight on the following facilities would be appreciated. Feel free to message me privately if you’d like.

BWI
IAD
BNA
CLT
PHL
PIT
DAL
DTW
STL

Long story short, I have a masters degree but I’ve grown increasingly dissatisfied with my career field and the options within it after about 5 years in the field.

I’ve always been very interested in aviation (this is not my current field), including air traffic control, and took the ATSA recently since I will age out next year and I figured this could be my last chance. Not really sure why I waited so long, but whatever. I scored BQ and have a TOL as of today, so I’m really interested in trying to move forward with this.

I know that a masters degree is pretty much irrelevant to ATC, just to be clear.

I’m wondering if there is anyone else on here who got an advanced degree and then switched careers into ATC. What has your experience been like? Was it worth abandoning your past education and established career in another field? Any deep regrets?

It’s obvious we don’t get shit for perks in this job. Our government doesn’t acknowledge or reward our integral role in this multibillion dollar industry. The airlines are too greedy and selfish to handout some vouchers for us so screw them and working hard on getting them any sort of request they might have. If anything I’m delaying them at the slightest inconvenience I might be having when working, just for my mental health while in position. Speaking of, my two hour layover for tomorrow just turned into a 17 min layover so I’ll most likely be missing my flight home. Niceeee.

TLDR: we don’t get shit for perks in this job. How about we all start putting “controller on board” for special/priority/expeditious handling? It’s quite literally the least we deserve for everything we do for the NAS 😂

US controller here!

I’ve been thinking about starting weight loss medication and my doctor has been encouraging it. I talked to AMAS and their answer was very vague on which medications qualify for weight loss. My doctor recommended Wegovy, but it’s $624/month and that’s a little out of my budget until we get a raise. My insurance covers ozempic and mounjaro at around $169/month, which I can swing, but not sure if my doctor will be willing to prescribe because I’m not pre diabetic. When I talked to AMAS he mentioned about Wegovy and Zepbound being the most common used for weight loss and having a 2 week downtime for side effects. Zepbound isn’t covered by my insurance at all is almost $1,200/month.

So a couple questions, has anyone used a website like Ro or Hers to get the medication versus using insurance? Is that something the FAA would be okay with? Has anyone used a liraglutide (Saxenda) and had the same 2 week downtime for weight loss?

Please reach out if you have any advice on how to prepare for my pilot's license and also what apps/resources I should use to prepare. Thanks.

Hello all, I’m sure this question has been asked over and over recently but is it worth becoming an ATC currently/in the near future? I’m currently working overnights 10hrs a day for an Amazon warehouse and extremely unhappy with the work culture and politics here. Was wondering what should I be expecting at the academy and after. Currently making 22.5/hr here.

We cannot take a professional courtesy upgrade to business class but according to him this is fine.

Anyone else hear about this? Possibly enforcing self signout.

I have a degree, but have to wait about about a year. Thinking about enlisting to gain experience because I don't want to bank my chances on a 10-20% chance of getting in. Should I just wait for next year to open up?

I’m a CFI that runs a flight school. How would I go about scheduling a tower and approach control tour for interested students? I know there’s a phone number to approach but I feel that’s not appropriate for that line. Thoughts? Thanks!

The forecast is for a beautiful day, but we all know at this point not to trust the weather people.

Edit: update. I did not go to work. The weather was as advertised. No regerts.

Especially ones that work HPN or north?

I'm starting to fly in and out of LDJ a fair amount, and I know the complexities of getting in and out of there IFR. I also know its nearly impossible to get an IFR clearance airborne in N90's airspace. But what about north of HPN? It is easy to get out of LDJ and northbound on the river if it is lets say 2000 OVC, but I wouldn't be able to get to my destination in the BOS area VFR. If I get up near POU, is there any chance at all I'd be able to get an airborne pickup?

Thanks in advance.

trying to keep it short but i just got my grad tech job offer which i have started at the same time i got my offer for ATC with NATS but they have not given me a start date

i feel equally as passionate about both jobs but i do like ATC more because I like how its more hands on/intense/high pressured and just in general i have always been an aviation geek so ATC does excite me more than my current tech job does

now i need to make a decision and cant decide - the biggest thing holding me back at the moment is location uncertainty as i do live in a very big city and the only upgrade from here would be London i dont mind the training at gloucester for a year but after that i dont wanna end up at belfast for the rest of my life

can someone from the UK help me decide - i feel like ive painted this very romanticised nice version of the ATC job in my head and I might be wrong

whats really pulling me towards ATC aside from the job itself is work life balance and how you leave your work at work and cant bring it home because w tech i bring my laptop home w me and jus cannot switch off

but then i do worry bout the night shifts and my circadian rythym and also how the career is short lived apparenlty u have to retire around 50 and also what if i get ill and lose my medical

also i have no clue about the pay? whats the ceiling? i have spoke to ppl and they have said u can hit 100k within the first 4 years easy but whats the ceiling?

should i quit tech?

i really want to quit it but everyone keeps saying i can make more money w tech and work from home etc and have flexiblity

but i like the intensity of the job and how once im home im home and dont have to bring my work home w me

im done w my laptop just want out

also ATC feels more meaningful - like when i imagine myself in the role i acc feel like i matter