European ATC

Pete Trusted Member

Thanks, but I think all of those are for ATCers with CTO certs and prior experience. What are the chances of joining the air force and ending up controlling in Europe? Or are there other ways?

photostarr Junior Member

I would call up your nearest AF recruiter. I almost went the Navy route as an Officer (pilot) before I got married and decided to settle down. Recruiters, though they have their own agenda to fill, are usually very helpful at getting you something you want. Recruiters have to fill a certain number of slots in certain areas, so they sometimes come off as used car salesman, trying to get you to do this or that. But if you're persistant about getting a job as a Controller in Europe, you can cut through all the bull shut. And if things progress to the point that you're signing a contract, make sure you READ everything in your contract and that it says you'll be deployed to Europe for the time you're happy with after boot camp or whatever.

Chuck3too3 Rookie

First off, all the jobs that the Air Force has posted on USAJOBS are kind of bogus... the Air Force is creating a pull of applicants to pull from for when they actually do need someone. Thus, they have listed every single facility in the air force on USAJOBS. If you click on one of the anouncements you will see that it says, "This is a standing register used to fill vacancies throughout....". There are no DOD air traffic positions overseas. Trust me, I just got out of the military as a controller and was stationed overseas, and my wife is still in right now as a controller. If there were positions over there we would be headed that way I promise. What you can do if you are interested in working with the DOD is to click on any of those anouncements, and it will take you to their hiring web site. You have to fill out about 20 pages of information and so long as you have at least supervisory air traffic experience and someone dies to give up a position, and you are cousins with the chief of the facility you want to go to, and you are retired military, and you were knocking off the squadron commander's daughter, and... well you get the picture.... it's tough to get a DOD position especially if you weren't in the military. There were more civilian controllers at my last facility than any other facility in the air force and they were all retired military except three.... out of 16.....

Brew Junior Member

No enlistment contract is going to give a guranteed set of orders to Europe. You can get a school gurantee, but that also has conditions that have to be met or they can take your school away. Read the fine print and do your research before seeing a recruiter. Lots of people blame recruiters for "tricking" them but it's your responsibility to educate yourself on what you are getting into. Show up at their office and tactfully tell them exactly what you want, and it will make the process easy & to everyone's benefit. With all of the information on the internet these days there's no excuse for being "tricked." Out of curiosity, why is it so important to you to control in Europe? Do you have family there or something?

Chuck3too3 Rookie

When you enlist in the Air Force now, it is a six year minimum enlistment... you have to score at least a 70 I think on the ASVAB, which a monkey could do but it would probably crap on the floor. As far as which base you are going to be stationed at... you won't know that until about 3/4 of the way through tech school.... there is a program called the Distinguished Graduate (DG) program in which if you have the highest GPA in your class of about 20 in tech school you are allowed to choose your first base.. that is how i ended up in Italy..... Italy doesn't take 3 levels (people fresh from tech school) anymore, and I don't think either of the two bases in Germany do. England may be your best shot, but there is no garuntee on that. If you want to get overseas that bad just join the Air Force and pick the post office as your career. The only places you can go are overseas since the government takes care of our mail here they only need military "mailmen" overseas....

atc_calvin Newcomer Wichita Falls, TX

I just left Germany after a 5 year tour there with the Air Force. Ramstein and Spangdahlem both take 3-levels. There is no way to join the Air Force with a guaranteed base, but there is a way to get your guaranteed base, graduate 1st or 2nd in your ATC class. If you graduate number 1 or 2 in your class, you will be allowed to change your 1st duty assignment to any base that you want as long as that base accepts 3-levels (I was lucky enough to graduate number 1 and was able to change my base from Holloman New Mexico to Spangdahlem, Germany). In ATC, that leaves just about every base open to you, with the exceptions being the Air Force Academy in Colorado, the Korea bases, Aviano in Italy, and Hawaii. There may be a few more exceptions, but these are the major ones that jump out at me.

Pete Trusted Member

wow thanks guys for all that info! Brew, yes, I do have family over there... it really isn't something I would die for and need right now, I just need to keep my options open and I wanted to know how everything works if I would choose to go that route some day. Thanks everyone for your input.

kickerboy17 Rookie

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First off, all the jobs that the Air Force has posted on USAJOBS are kind of bogus...

Chuck is right on with that comment. Those posting are bogus. I don't think the AF has any DOD slots in Europe yet. If anyone know any different please let me know. I'm looking at civilian ATC jobs in Europe but I've heard they are picky.

tiredofwaiting Rookie

Does anyone have info about getting jobs in Europe mainly the UK? I've researched it some but it seems kinda impossible unless you want to goto they're 2 yr school.

Bankrupttick Newcomer EKCH

Hi all,

I know it's a kinda old thread by now, but I fell across it while I was googling something else, and thought I'd reply (someone was asking for a European to write something...).

First off, it is far from all countries over here that require citizenship of a European country to become an ATCO. What we do require, however, is knowledge of the local language, as most handling of VFR-flights as well as in-house coordination is done in local-speak However most ANSPs have a system in place for language tuition etc, so provided you put in the effort you should be able to clear that particular hurdle. DFS in Germany are rumoured to be particularly good at helping you settle in.

Language is obviously less of a problem if you want to go to the UK. If you are ACC, there is only one employer (NATS), if you are TWR/APP there are many private airfields (some of them reasonably big, such as Liverpool), and of course the NATS-run airports (all the major airports, bar Liverpool and Newcastle). NATS generally want you to go through their school, and particularly these days with not much increase in traffic, as they can get pretty much all the controllers they need from the school. There IS such a thing as an assessment of prior competence, however, which will probably let you skip most of the school, but you will still have to redo any training that is UK-specific. Private airfields are probably the best route to go if you want to do the assessment of prior competence, but NATS may let you do the assessment for en-route.

NATS is in a financial pickle at the moment, so there are many arguments for hiring fully qualified controllers, provided you don't require too much re-training. Your best chances of getting to Europe will almost definately lie with DFS in Germany, the UK in general, or maybe Switzerland (not an EU member, but most of their controllers are non-Swiss). Smaller countries like Sweden, Denmark and Norway only train very few controllers per year, with a very large number of applicants, so generally they do not hire from abroad.

Hope this has helped someone. Any questions? Feel free to PM.