Atc vs dispatch

van12 said:
I Remember reading somewhere that majors hire atcs for a certain role.
Click to expand...

have not heard of that. Majors use dispatchers that get assigned/promoted into a role where they deal with ATC. They listen in on ATC Telecon that happens every 2hours during the day and also chime in if there is something important pertaining their own airline. They work as a “liaison to ATC” but they are dispatchers that make their way to that position within the company, they are not controllers.
 
QXDX said:
If it were my choice to make, I'd choose ATC. The way I see it, quality of life issues (i.e. scheduling) in both fields are driven by seniority, so remove that from the equation. Flight benefits are nice, but in the grand scheme of things, you really don't use them all that much; certainly not enough that I'd make a career choice on that basis. You can't eat or pay your bills with flight benefits.

So that leaves pay and location as the deciding factors. Pay is good in ANY controller job, whereas Dispatch pay is only good if you make it to a major (that's a pretty big "if). In ATC you can (eventually) live and work wherever you want. In Dispatch you really only have a few choices.

Also, in ATC you can retire early and have a second career in Dispatch if you want. Can't do it the other way around.
Click to expand...

I agree with most of this except the flight benefits. My family and I take well over $10,000 worth of flights per year and I travel the least out of any dispatcher I know. A last minute flight to to visit family or to go to some sort of an event would be over $1,000 round trip per person. An International vacation booked months in advance would still be over $1,000 per person.
 
van12 said:
I Remember reading somewhere that majors hire atcs for a certain role.
Click to expand...
What you may be referring to has nothing to do with dispatch but in a lot of hub cities, the Airlines control the ramp and often use retired ATC personnel in those roles. For example, the entire ramp area in CLT between the runways is controlled by American Airlines personnel, and if you have ever been to CLT, the ramp area is more crazy than the actual taxiways. Again this has nothing to do with dispatch usually. Also in some cases, majors may employ regional ATC managers as well that work with ATC on longer term issues (such as new SIDs and STARs in some airports, runway construction, etc).

As was also said though, there are ATC liasons in the SOC of the particular Airline that deal with the Tactical ATC issues, and these are usually experienced dispatchers on the respective seniority list.
 
My situation was very similar to cptruski and PuddlePirate. Went through the CTI program during the change in hiring requirements, tried once and reevaluated what I wanted to do. My difference was already being employed by a major in a different department. In the end, I just couldn't risk giving up the seniority and opportunity to be hired as an internal for a 50/50 shot at ATC. However, if I was at a regional or even outside of aviation at the time, I probably would have pursued ATC first and kept dispatch as a backup. I am still under 31, but would not switch to ATC from a major.
 
Just a quick word of caution, the FAA isn’t all puppies and sunshine. Personally my QOL was absolutely worse than any dispatch job I’ve ever been at. Schedule at the center was a 5/2 rotation - 2pm, 1pm, 7am, 6:30a, and a 10pm mid every week....never been so perpetually tired in my life.

Also keep in mind that there are some level 6 and 7 vfr towers out there. They sometimes work a ton of traffic and get paid nowhere near major dispatch pay. Certainly better than that regional life, though. And don’t forget that you have to work your way up from the minimum on those pay bands.

 
SpaceBeagle said:
Just a quick word of caution, the FAA isn’t all puppies and sunshine. Personally my QOL was absolutely worse than any dispatch job I’ve ever been at. Schedule at the center was a 5/2 rotation - 2pm, 1pm, 7am, 6:30a, and a 10pm mid every week....never been so perpetually tired in my life.

Also keep in mind that there are some level 6 and 7 vfr towers out there. They sometimes work a ton of traffic and get paid nowhere near major dispatch pay. Certainly better than that regional life, though. And don’t forget that you have to work your way up from the minimum on those pay bands.

Click to expand...


Ah to be a 25+ yr ATC12 at ATL/A80 again with 800+ hours of OT for 5 straight years. Mandatory 6 day weeks that went on for over 5 years (and it appears the staffing hasn't gotten that much better).

Absolutely rolled in the green (250+k a year) which increased how much I had to pay my ex when we divorced (because I was always at work and the QOL (for both of us) was miserable.

QOL sucked, lack of time off/cancelled vacations sucked, Stress of working ATL/A80 as I got closer to retirement sucked, Schedule sucked, Union was, well they were a Union.

Become a dispatcher. That crap in the previous paragraph isn't worth the money in the paragraph before it..
 
QXDX said:
If it were my choice to make, I'd choose ATC. The way I see it, quality of life issues (i.e. scheduling) in both fields are driven by seniority, so remove that from the equation. Flight benefits are nice, but in the grand scheme of things, you really don't use them all that much; certainly not enough that I'd make a career choice on that basis. You can't eat or pay your bills with flight benefits.

So that leaves pay and location as the deciding factors. Pay is good in ANY controller job, whereas Dispatch pay is only good if you make it to a major (that's a pretty big "if). In ATC you can (eventually) live and work wherever you want. In Dispatch you really only have a few choices.

Also, in ATC you can retire early and have a second career in Dispatch if you want. Can't do it the other way around.
Click to expand...
How many shops work straight 5-2? With a quick turn built into your schedule every week? There’s also several facilities that have mandatory overtime from the shortage the FAA brought on themselves.

I originally went to school for ATC luckily a dispatch ticket was built in to my degree. Being on the other side of things and having a bunch of close friends that are controllers, for me, I’m so glad I grinded out making it to a major.

also, you can say that YOU don’t use flight benefits that much, but a lot of us do. I used to keep a spread sheet with the price of flights I’d taken, it got silly. Depending on getting Intl first/business it’s a $25-40k year a benefit. That’s not even counting jumpseating which to me is priceless.
 
Altimeter said:
How many shops work straight 5-2? With a quick turn built into your schedule every week? There’s also several facilities that have mandatory overtime from the shortage the FAA brought on themselves.

I originally went to school for ATC luckily a dispatch ticket was built in to my degree. Being on the other side of things and having a bunch of close friends that are controllers, for me, I’m so glad I grinded out making it to a major.

also, you can say that YOU don’t use flight benefits that much, but a lot of us do. I used to keep a spread sheet with the price of flights I’d taken, it got silly. Depending on getting Intl first/business it’s a $25-40k year a benefit. That’s not even counting jumpseating which to me is priceless.
Click to expand...

Travel benefits really depend on the time of the year, day of the week and the destination you are going to. The weather plays a big part too as that wide open flight to/from one hub may get oversold because another hub has a blizzard or tornado event. Plus how many people you are trying to non rev with. The jumpseat is a great benefit but depending on where you are trying to go there may be many pilots trying to get there too. The jumpseat may not be much help if your companion, family, buddies can't get on.
 
Flagship_dxer said:
Travel benefits really depend on the time of the year, day of the week and the destination you are going to. The weather plays a big part too as that wide open flight to/from one hub may get oversold because another hub has a blizzard or tornado event. Plus how many people you are trying to non rev with. The jumpseat is a great benefit but depending on where you are trying to go there may be many pilots trying to get there too. The jumpseat may not be much help if your companion, family, buddies can't get on.
Click to expand...
Yes? The inverse is also true. If you know how to non rev and play the game you can have a pretty high success rate. I’m sure we all have crazy stories of being bumped and getting stuck, but for me I have way better stories of seeing amazing places sometimes in premium style. Having benefits 10/10 times is better than not having them.
 
As a person who has done both, I would say way the pros and cons of both along with assessing your own personality. If you are a type A personality and like adrenaline rushes, definitely ATC is the way to go. You will thrive on ATC's fast pace. I will tell you even the busiest IROP days at a regional didn't even feel like a slow day in ATC at a level 4 tower....... I often found myself bored out of my mind in dispatch when others were over the top stressed...... Some thought I didn't care about my job in dispatch because my blood pressure never raised from the job(farthest from the truth, but thats what some thought).

However if you don't handle stress well and don't have a type A personality ATC will not be enjoyable for you...... I can say this: Anyone with average intelligence and a pulse can do dispatch, but only a select few can do ATC....... Not bashing dispatch, just pointing out a fact.....

Other thing to way in on is length of career. ATCers get to retire young with a full pension. If you lose your medical the disability retirement is very nice(60% of your high 3 first year minus 100% ssd, 40% year two and beyond minus 60% of SSDI) and you get it until reach retirement age or until you make 80% of your last pay grade. Even at the majors retirement has all but disappeared....

Neither job will give you a normal work schedule( 2/2/1 can be brutal for some in ATC), and politics/airline viability is another thing to consider. Both jobs will have a ton of office politics you have to deal with it. Both have a ton of memorization......

All this being said, get your dispatch certificate prior to ATC. Their are a billion things that can end an ATCers career, having the dispatch cert in your pocket would be a great fallback......(though its only a one week course for recent ATCers)

Last unless you plan to fly alone on the jumpseat wherever you go, flight benefits are totally overrated with how full flights are these days.....

All of this is just my opinion. Take what you would like and disregard what's left.
 
Altimeter said:
but for me I have way better stories of seeing amazing places sometimes in premium style.
Click to expand...

When your making 100k-200k per year, who is to say you might not be able to afford that and have a predesignated seat? At one point when I was making the big bucks at ZID I flew so much I earned Silver Medallion level on Delta and was 1 segment short of gold.......
 
TheGirlinPurple said:
When your making 100k-200k per year, who is to say you might not be able to afford that and have a predesignated seat? At one point when I was making the big bucks at ZID I flew so much I earned Silver Medallion level on Delta and was 1 segment short of gold.......
Click to expand...
Not to mention having a retirement you get a full pension with 25 years of service or at age 50 with 20 years of service and have a pension if you become disabled. Don't get me wrong flight benefits can be nice, but if that is the deciding reason you were to choose dispatch over ATC.......well......ummmmm....... Are they really that valuable?
 
TheGirlinPurple said:
Not to mention having a retirement you get a full pension with 25 years of service or at age 50 with 20 years of service and have a pension if you become disabled. Don't get me wrong flight benefits can be nice, but if that is the deciding reason you were to choose dispatch over ATC.......well......ummmmm....... Are they really that valuable?
Click to expand...

I agree with this. When I first got into aviation well over 30 years ago working in the passenger world at NWA I flew everywhere with my flight bennies but back then getting on an airplane was much easier we flew widebody aircraft everywhere and I almost always got first class. It was nice let me tell you. Today much different travel experience especially as a non-rev. There is no where near the space available on airplanes as there was 30 years ago. Non reving for me today would be nail biting even more so with a family. It is not the perk it once was. Don't get me wrong you can still work the system but much more likely you will get bumped especially for premium destinations. I have jumpseat in the cargo world but never use it I always buy my tickets now. At my current age I think about retirement and in the airline world both passenger and cargo there are virtually no more defined benefit pensions it's all either a portable pension and matching 401 like I have now or a crappy defined pension that I had from NWA and what little I will get from that. Even tho ATC is a QOL disaster at least you can retire early with a full pension that is huge. I could be retired now if I had gone ATC (provided I could even do it) as opposed to me having to work for a lot more years in the airline world. I have a friend a retired NJ cop he is one of the last ones to get a full pension he is 55 and been retired for years his biggest decision today is when to take the boat out. Flight bennies are nice but early retirement is better much better.....
 
Last edited:
TheGirlinPurple said:
When your making 100k-200k per year, who is to say you might not be able to afford that and have a predesignated seat? At one point when I was making the big bucks at ZID I flew so much I earned Silver Medallion level on Delta and was 1 segment short of gold.......
Click to expand...

You can still buy positive space tickets if you're at a major...normally at a discount...or you can be flexible and try space available if you want to save money. It's nice to have the choice.

Honestly the biggest downside to me with ATC sounds like the schedule, with rotating start times and a 5 on 2 off rotation. Dispatchers at majors get a lot more time off (or potential OT if you want to work on your days off.)
 
TheGirlinPurple said:
As a person who has done both, I would say way the pros and cons of both along with assessing your own personality. If you are a type A personality and like adrenaline rushes, definitely ATC is the way to go. You will thrive on ATC's fast pace. I will tell you even the busiest IROP days at a regional didn't even feel like a slow day in ATC at a level 4 tower....... I often found myself bored out of my mind in dispatch when others were over the top stressed...... Some thought I didn't care about my job in dispatch because my blood pressure never raised from the job(farthest from the truth, but thats what some thought).

However if you don't handle stress well and don't have a type A personality ATC will not be enjoyable for you...... I can say this: Anyone with average intelligence and a pulse can do dispatch, but only a select few can do ATC....... Not bashing dispatch, just pointing out a fact.....

Other thing to way in on is length of career. ATCers get to retire young with a full pension. If you lose your medical the disability retirement is very nice(60% of your high 3 first year minus 100% ssd, 40% year two and beyond minus 60% of SSDI) and you get it until reach retirement age or until you make 80% of your last pay grade. Even at the majors retirement has all but disappeared....

Neither job will give you a normal work schedule( 2/2/1 can be brutal for some in ATC), and politics/airline viability is another thing to consider. Both jobs will have a ton of office politics you have to deal with it. Both have a ton of memorization......

All this being said, get your dispatch certificate prior to ATC. Their are a billion things that can end an ATCers career, having the dispatch cert in your pocket would be a great fallback......(though its only a one week course for recent ATCers)

Last unless you plan to fly alone on the jumpseat wherever you go, flight benefits are totally overrated with how full flights are these days.....

All of this is just my opinion. Take what you would like and disregard what's left.
Click to expand...

So what intelligence level does it take to know the difference between “way” and “weigh?” :stir:

Both ATC and Dispatch have the opportunity to make 100k-200k a year. Also a fact.

I like to fly, and sit up front. For me dispatch is the “way” to go. For some ATC is the “way” to go. Especially if you like working 2 AMs, 2 PMs, and a mid every week and being forced to retire at age 56, all with no flight bennies. To the OP, you just have to “weigh” the pros and cons for yourself. GL!
 
CF34-3B1 said:
So what intelligence level does it take to know the difference between “way” and “weigh?” :stir:

Both ATC and Dispatch have the opportunity to make 100k-200k a year. Also a fact.

I like to fly, and sit up front. For me dispatch is the “way” to go. For some ATC is the “way” to go. Especially if you like working 2 AMs, 2 PMs, and a mid every week and being forced to retire at age 56, all with no flight bennies. To the OP, you just have to “weigh” the pros and cons for yourself. GL!
Click to expand...
Only a "select few" know the difference.
 
CF34-3B1 said:
So what intelligence level does it take to know the difference between “way” and “weigh?” :stir:

Both ATC and Dispatch have the opportunity to make 100k-200k a year. Also a fact.

I like to fly, and sit up front. For me dispatch is the “way” to go. For some ATC is the “way” to go. Especially if you like working 2 AMs, 2 PMs, and a mid every week and being forced to retire at age 56, all with no flight bennies. To the OP, you just have to “weigh” the pros and cons for yourself. GL!
Click to expand...
What about “Whey”? Can’t leave out the protein.
 
I just got a tentative offer letter from the FAA for the ATC trainee position. I like it here at my regional as a dispatcher so far.. Tough choice
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top