Air Traffic Management Officer

Air traffic controllers (ATCOs) are personnel responsible for the safe, orderly, and expeditious flow of air traffic in the global air traffic control system. In plain terms, air traffic controllers ensure that aircraft stay safe distances apart, either on ground or in the air.

Air traffic controllers usually do the following:

• Manage ground traffic at airports, including baggage vehicles and airport workers
• Issue landing and takeoff clearance/instructions to pilots
• Monitor and direct the movement of aircraft on the ground and in the air using the available technologies
• Manage communications by transferring control of departing flights to traffic control centers and accepting control of arriving flights
• Communicate weather information, runway closures, and other important announcements to pilots
• Alert airport response staff, in the event of an aircraft emergency

Air Traffic Controllers are grouped into three main categories:

1) Area controllers (or En-route controllers) who handle air traffic once they are out of the airport airspace.
2) Approach controllers who guide air traffic in and out of the airport.
3) Aerodrome controllers (or Tower controllers) who direct the movement of aircraft/vehicles on runways, taxiways, and within the vicinity of the airport.

How to become an Air Traffic Controller in the Philippines?

• Natural born Filipino citizen
• College Education. A baccalaureate degree is required, you must be a graduate of any 4-year college course.
• Pass the Qualifying Exam. A qualifying exam is usually held once a year.
• Physically, mentally and psychology fit. You must be medically fit to work.

Salary and Benefits

• No allowances in any form are provided to (CATS course) trainees. 
• ATMOs who are not regular plantilla item holders are employed on contractual basis (Job Order), they are paid on a daily basis of ₱2057.68. 20% premium pay is provided every 3 months. No other allowances/bonus.
• Basic monthly pay for ATMO I is ₱51,155.00, ATMO II is ₱57,805, ATMO III is ₱65,319, ATMO IV is ₱73,811, ATMO V is ₱83,406. Mid-year bonus and 13th month pay equivalent to one month pay is also provided plus yearly clothing allowance worth ₱6,000 plus another ₱4,000 monthly allowance.

The Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines conducts a yearly recruitment program and is the sole employer of Air Traffic Management Officers, under the Air Traffic Service, in the Philippines.