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.
Most important skills
- Active Listening
- Monitoring
- Reading Comprehension
- Speaking
- Critical Thinking
- Coordination
- Writing
- Complex Problem Solving
Key knowledge
- Public Safety and Security
- Transportation
- English Language
- Customer and Personal Service
- Education and Training
- Telecommunications
- Administration and Management
- Law and Government
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.
- Perform and supervise airfield management activities, including mobile airfield management functions.
Strongest interest areas (O*NET): Conventional, Realistic, Enterprising.
Qualifications and licensing
- Most common education
- Bachelor's Degree (50.9% of respondents)
- Related experience
- Over 2 years, up to and including 4 years (25.2%)
- On-the-job training
- Over 6 months, up to and including 1 year (33.5%)
- Preparation level
- O*NET job zone 3: Job Zone Three: Medium Preparation Needed
- Licensing
- Not yet verified. Check your state licensing board.
Check before planning
- Licensing for Airfield Operations Specialists is not yet verified for any state: check the state licensing board before planning.
Limits
- Distributions show what current workers or occupational experts report, not legal minimums.
- Requirements vary by employer and state; time to qualify is not estimated.
Source: O*NET 31.0 Database (USDOL/ETA, CC BY 4.0); BLS Employment Projections · dataset 2026.10.8 · method e3-qualification-1.0.0
Work environment
How the typical conditions of this occupation compare with 911 occupations in O*NET (very low = the lowest fifth).
Levels are relative. Most occupations involve a lot of contact with people, for example, so “very low” can still mean regular contact; the last column shows what workers actually reported.
| Condition | Level | Compared with other occupations | Most common answer (O*NET survey) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Contact with others | Very high | Higher on contact with others than 94% of occupations compared | 93% of surveyed respondents chose “Constant contact with others” |
| Dealing with the public | Very high | Higher on dealing with the public than 97% of occupations compared | 79% of surveyed respondents chose “Extremely important” |
| Teamwork | Very high | Higher on teamwork than 90% of occupations compared | 76% of surveyed respondents chose “Extremely important” |
| Freedom to make decisions | Very high | Higher on freedom to make decisions than 95% of occupations compared | 82% of surveyed respondents chose “A lot of freedom” |
| Time pressure | High | Higher on time pressure than 69% of occupations compared | 55% of surveyed respondents chose “Every day” |
| Conflict situations | Very high | Higher on conflict situations than 88% of occupations compared | 39% of surveyed respondents chose “Once a month or more but not every week” |
| Dealing with unpleasant or angry people | Very high | Higher on dealing with unpleasant or angry people than 88% of occupations compared | 29% of surveyed respondents chose “Every day” |
| Consequence of error | Very high | Higher on consequence of error than 99% of occupations compared | 85% of surveyed respondents chose “Extremely serious” |
Work-pressure profile
- Time pressure: high
- Conflict situations: very high
- Dealing with unpleasant or angry people: very high
- Consequence of error: very high
Each part is shown on its own. There is no combined stress score, and conditions vary by employer and role.
Full answer distributions
Contact with others
- No contact with others: 0%
- Occasional contact with others: 0%
- Contact with others about half the time: 0.97%
- Contact with others most of the time: 6.5%
- Constant contact with others: 92.53%
n = 25, Incumbent 08/2021
Dealing with the public
- Not important at all: 0%
- Fairly important: 0%
- Important: 2.34%
- Very important: 18.4%
- Extremely important: 79.26%
n = 25, Incumbent 08/2021
Teamwork
- Not important at all: 0%
- Fairly important: 0%
- Important: 0.52%
- Very important: 23.66%
- Extremely important: 75.82%
n = 24, Incumbent 08/2021
Freedom to make decisions
- No freedom: 0%
- Very little freedom: 0%
- Limited freedom: 3.45%
- Some freedom: 14.32%
- A lot of freedom: 82.23%
n = 25, Incumbent 08/2021
Time pressure
- Never: 9.57%
- Once a year or more but not every month: 6.25%
- Once a month or more but not every week: 3.24%
- Once a week or more but not every day: 26.41%
- Every day: 54.52%
n = 25, Incumbent 08/2021
Conflict situations
- Never: 0%
- Once a year or more but not every month: 10.54%
- Once a month or more but not every week: 38.77%
- Once a week or more but not every day: 29.1%
- Every day: 21.58%
n = 25, Incumbent 08/2021
Dealing with unpleasant or angry people
- Never: 0.51%
- Once a year or more but not every month: 20.16%
- Once a month or more but not every week: 21.51%
- Once a week or more but not every day: 28.86%
- Every day: 28.96%
n = 25, Incumbent 08/2021
Consequence of error
- Not serious at all: 1.94%
- Fairly serious: 0%
- Serious: 0.48%
- Very serious: 12.55%
- Extremely serious: 85.03%
n = 25, Incumbent 08/2021
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O*NET-SOC 53-2022.00 · SOC 53-2022 (exact, high confidence) · dataset 2026.10.8