Airfield Operations Specialists
Ensure the safe takeoff and landing of commercial and military aircraft. Duties include coordination between air-traffic control and maintenance personnel, dispatching, using airfield landing and navigational aids, implementing airfield safety procedures, monitoring and maintaining flight records, and applying knowledge of weather information.
- Median pay
- $56,850
- Doing it now
- 15,300
- By 2035
- Up 7.8%
- Usually needs
- High school diploma or equivalent
a year
across the country
1,500 openings a year
to get in
What the work involves
- Implement airfield safety procedures to ensure a safe operating environment for personnel and aircraft operation.
- Plan and coordinate airfield construction.
- Coordinate with agencies, such as air traffic control, civil engineers, or command posts, to ensure support of airfield management activities.
- Monitor the arrival, parking, refueling, loading, and departure of all aircraft.
- Train operations staff.
- Relay departure, arrival, delay, aircraft and airfield status, and other pertinent information to upline controlling agencies.
- Coordinate communications between air traffic control and maintenance personnel.
What to study
The fields of study the Department of Education links to this occupation, most widely taught first.
- Air TransportationSee 119 colleges that teach it
Who it suits
O*NET scores every occupation on six interest dimensions. This one leans hardest on these three.
Organised and precise
Hands-on and practical
Leading and persuading
Careers like this one
Where this comes from: the description and the task list are O*NET, which the Department of Labor maintains. Pay, workforce size, outlook and the education normally needed are the Bureau of Labor Statistics Employment Projections programme, 2025 wages and 2025 to 2035 projections. Half of them earn more than $56,850 a year, which means half earn less, and what you would earn depends on where you work and how long you have been doing it. The fields of study come from the National Center for Education Statistics crosswalk.