Air Traffic Controllers

49% (Moderate Risk)

Moderate Risk (41-60%): Occupations with a moderate risk of automation usually involve routine tasks but still require some human judgment and interaction.

More information on what this score is, and how it is calculated is available here.

User poll

Sentiment

The following graph is included wherever there is a substantial amount of votes to render meaningful data. These visual representations display user poll results over time, providing a significant indication of sentiment trends.

Wages

Very high paid relative to other professions

In 2023, the median annual wage for 'Air Traffic Controllers' was $137,380, or $66 per hour

'Air Traffic Controllers' were paid 185.9% higher than the national median wage, which stood at $48,060

Wages over time

Comments

Ryan (Low) 6 months ago

the job requires humans to talk to pilots and ai could possibly not understand what the pilot is saying or that they may be unable to prevent an accident from happening

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Ted (Low) 7 months ago

think about how many people go through Heathrow each day, that's a lot of trust in an robot/ai taking over

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Gonzalo Sancho 1 year ago

As an air traffic controller I truly think we will not be entirely replaced. It’s a job with a lot of responsibility and there will always need to be someone behind the machine making the last decision. And something no one has talked about is the weather conditions, if there is a storm everything gets really complicated and I find it really difficult for a computer to get and process all the information required. Without taking into account weather conditions I could see the job replaced.

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Philip (Low) 1 year ago

its risky to have robots doing risky jobs for people when human lives are at stake

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Mike 1 year ago

I’ve got 18 years left until retirement. I’ve heard eventually we’re gonna just be ‘air traffic watchers’, there just in case things go wrong. We’re nowhere near that now, and the FAA usually lags behind on technology. But I wouldn’t mind the last few years in my career sitting back and watching a computer do it’s thing…

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Dan (Moderate) 2 years ago

Due to the rapid development of incredibly intelligent technologies, with artificial intelligence becoming increasingly popular and lucrative in ever-expanding areas and fields for the betterment of human civilization, the air travel industry is no exception.

Most likely, air traffic control will be almost entirely automated, with human controllers making the ultimate decisions in extreme situations. Aircraft will be almost entirely integrated with artificial intelligence, making them even safer and more efficient than ever before.

It's only a matter of time rather than possibility.

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Chinmay Narendra (Highly likely) 2 years ago

It is highly likely as robots can do this job because they have eyes and can learn about air traffic control.

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Mike (Highly likely) 3 years ago

Unmanned Traffic Management is being currently tested. If it succeeds, Air Traffic Controllers will decrease in numbers as UTM spreads as a result of the increase of unmanned aircraft traffic in the skies.

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Joey Rood (Low) 4 years ago

AI may get to a point where it will be indistinguishable from humans, especially in a standard exchange such as the kind air traffic communications have.

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Gabriel Pinheiro 4 years ago

We already got to that point. Check out the Turing test and how many AIs have already passed it.

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Camilo (Uncertain) 5 years ago

Planes are being driven by robots at this point, why wouldn't ATC be taken over by bots. Can a bot have a heart attack??

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Ted 7 months ago

Autopilot is more or less inputting an altitude, or a climb/descent rate or speed into it, it then takes that and just figures it out, like if your going 250 knots and you input 200 knots into it, it would reduce the thrust, or if you set an increase in climb rate it would raise the nose. Its basically expecting those couple of inputs and knows how to correct them, it doesn't think on its own, it just does as its told, i don't think we're at all close to robots flying planes (famous last words 😅)

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Bob 4 years ago

Just about everything said in this is wrong. Planes still have 2 human pilots controlling the autopilot. Autopilot doesn’t fly the plane the pilots do. Autopilot is cruise control in the plane not a pilot. Also, correct computers can’t suffer from a Heart attack but computers can bug, crash, fail due to power issues etc. and can improvise and problem solve. If an Aircraft went NORDO would the automated ATC know to use light gun signals at that specific aircraft ?

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