It varies per ops center, but here's how it goes for me. I come into work and the first thing I do is go to my assigned desk for the day and get a briefing on what's going on the desk from the dispatcher I'm relieving. Generally, it's asking about the weather, routes being used, ATC initiatives, reroutes and closures, missile launches, any NOTAMS, performance MEL/CDL restrictions and anything else. Once that's complete, I take over the desk and start up all of my applications (which is about 7-8) and get started. Depending on what area you're working, you can expect anywhere from 25-40 flights to plan and flight follow. We're not a huge group in dispatch, but we all get along good and use a lot of DRM (dispatch resource management) on what's going on, which helps in catching mistakes. If there's something we are unsure about, we ask each other and the dx sup as well. Our desk are segregated into different areas, couple desks dealing with international flights, a few with transcons flights, and the rest have a mix of flights. The entire SOC floor is segregated as well, you'll have maintenance control in one corner, system ops controllers and customer service coordinators in another, crew services and recovery in another, as well as ATC controllers and mx routing. So there are a lot of people you have to work with depending on the issues. The atmosphere is pretty relaxed on normal days, but on irregular operation days, you can expect it to get quite hectic. A lot of variables come with every flight, whether its crew issues, aircraft issues, routing or weather. Lot's of stuff going on so you have to be sure you can multitask and keep your cool.
