Introduction
The operation of airlines around the world becomes possible due to the work of numerous people including pilots, flight attendants, and flight dispatchers. The latter’s profession is a rather challenging one as it requires considerable qualifications and the respective license given by the country’s authority dealing with airline operations, i. e. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).
Aircraft Flight Dispatcher Profession
The major qualifications that a flight dispatcher is to display include the ability to operate the computer and deep knowledge of the airline’s operational principles. As well, in several cases, the flight dispatchers have to obtain a license from the Federal Aviation Administration to certify their qualification in airline dispatching.
Aircraft Flight Dispatcher Licensing
Licensing Requirements
The major requirements that the FAA sets for the potential flight dispatcher license applicants include age, experience, knowledge, and practical skills points (Phelps, 2009). First of all, FAA states that no person is eligible for work as a flight dispatcher in a private or state-owned airline company without the properly obtained certification from FAA. Next, FAA defines the person eligible for its flight dispatcher license as a 23-year old person with the proper knowledge of English. As well, FAA sets the knowledge requirements for the applicants that include the need to pass tests in Federal Aviation Regulations, meteorology, use of maps and charts, and the ability to implement the data by the National Weather Service and the National Airspace System (Phelps, 2009). Finally, FAA certification requires the applicants to have experience in handling human factors in airspace systems, aeronautical decision making, and also have experience of working as a pilot, a military aircraft pilot or dispatcher, a meteorologist, or an air traffic controller (Phelps, 2009).
Cases Requiring License
According to ADR (2009), IFOD (2009), and FAA (2009), the flight dispatcher license is required to be eligible to work for any airline company in all cases. To be able to provide safety for aeronautical services, flight dispatchers together with aircraft pilots have not only to obtain the license but also update their qualification and prove their eligibility for the license by taking the annual training classes in Dispatch Resource Management (Flight Dispatchers, 2009). Apart from FAA, the flight dispatcher licenses can also be granted by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) and the Joint Aviation Authority (JAT) (Flight Dispatchers, 2009).
Cases Requiring No License
However, Hollis (2009) argues about the cases when no officially confirmed qualification and the FAA license is needed for a person to work as a flight dispatcher (Hollis, 2009). Referring to the FAA/ICAO modified requirements for the flight dispatchers of 2008, Hollis (2009) claims the possibility to replace the requirement of an official license for an applicant for a position of a dispatcher by the conformity of the applicant to other requirements set by FAA and ICAO. In more detail, these requirements include the conformity of the applicant to the set age and experience standards, as well as the possession of the FAA-defined skills for flight dispatchers (Hollis, 2009).
Conclusions
Accordingly, the conclusion from the above-presented data is that a flight dispatcher must be officially licensed by FAA, ICAO, or JAT. However, there are exceptions to this rule, and they concern mainly the people having considerable experience in aeronautical practice but not having the specific license at a specific moment.
References
ADR. (2009). Aircraft Dispatcher. Web.
FAA. (2009). Licenses and Certificates.
Flight Dispatchers. (2009). Overview. Web.
Hollis, L. (2009). Aircraft Dispatch. Web.
IFOD. (2009). What is an Airline Dispatcher? Web.
Phelps, B. (2009). FAA Aircraft Dispatcher Requirements. Web.