Paid a salary from the first day of training. Most people who apply never get in.
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Pay, the path, pros and cons and the facts on one printable page. Counsellors: send it to a student from your own email in one click.
Programs in the fields this career usually comes through. Each has its own page: what it takes to get in, the courses you need and what it costs.
The median pay is about $114,000 a year. Across everyone in the job it runs from about $53,000 at the lower end to about $221,000 at the upper end. The source is listed under Sources at the end of this page.
2 to 3 years, on the usual route, and you are paid while you train from the first day.
From nothing up to about $500, depending on the route, for tuition, fees, exams and kit. Living costs are not counted.
Yes. It is a regulated job, so you need a licence or registration before you can work.
Moderate demand nationally, from government outlook data. Demand varies by region, so check your area.
Or read the whole thing here
What you earn and what it costs to get there.
Median
$114,000
Lower end
$53,000
Upper end
$221,000
Job Bank's national median is $54.88 an hour, about $114,000 a year full time. The range runs from $25.25 to $106.19 an hour because it counts trainees as well as senior controllers. Nav Canada's own pay scales are on the next cards.
$58,606 in year one
Rising to $61,337 after a year in training
Nav Canada, the company that runs air traffic control in Canada, hires you as an employee on day one of training. These are its published 2026 training salaries.
$104,000 to $207,000
Published 2026 ranges for tower and area controllers
Controllers at area control centres, who handle aircraft between airports, start higher than tower controllers. Premiums for shift work, holidays and location are paid on top of the base.
Roughly, all in
Nothing to $500
Tuition, fees, exams and kit. Not rent, food or travel
Training costs you nothing and you are paid a salary while you do it, so the honest low end is zero. The high end is whatever the Transport Canada Category 2 medical costs above the reimbursement, which is a few hundred dollars at most. Moving for training or a posting is your own cost, but that is a moving cost rather than a cost of entering the job. What the numbers hide is the washout rate: the training is hard, people are cut at every stage, and if you are cut you leave with no credential you can use anywhere else.
This is one of the few high-paying careers in Canada with no tuition at all. The catch is the washout rate: the training is hard and people are cut at every stage.
Pension
A large employer pension plan.
Shift and night premiums
Paid on top of the base salary.
Health, dental and disability coverage
Paid from day one
You are an employee in training, not a student.
The exact path from high school to qualified.
There is no college program for this. Nav Canada, the company that runs air traffic control in Canada, selects and trains everyone itself.
Finish high school
Grade 12
A high school diploma or equivalent is the education requirement. No aviation experience is needed.
Apply and pass the screening
Months
You must be 18 or older and a Canadian citizen or permanent resident. Online aptitude tests come first, then interviews. Most applicants stop here.
Medical, security and drug screening
Weeks to months
A Transport Canada Category 2 medical certificate, a security clearance and an initial drug test including cannabis.
Basic training
Several months
Full-time classroom and simulator work, a 37.5 hour week with mandatory attendance. Failing a check means you are out.
On the job training
1 to 2 years
You move to a tower or an area control centre, work real traffic beside a qualified controller, and switch to shift work. You are licensed when you check out.
Math
Speed, distance and time in your head, constantly.
English
Clear, exact radio phrasing is the whole job.
French
Fluent English and French is required for the Montreal region, which includes Ottawa.
Geography or physics
Weather and airspace make more sense with them.
Controllers hold a licence issued by Transport Canada and must keep a Category 2 aviation medical. Civilian air traffic control in Canada is run by a single company, Nav Canada, out of 7 area control centres in Vancouver, Edmonton, Winnipeg, Toronto, Montreal, Moncton and Gander, plus about 42 airport towers. The only other employer is the Canadian Armed Forces, which trains military controllers. You have to be willing to relocate, because you are trained for one specific location.
Spatial reasoning and memory
Holding a moving picture of many aircraft in your head at once.
Staying calm when it gets busy
Tested in simulators, not in interviews.
Speaking clearly and quickly
Phrasing has to be exact every time.
Availability
You must be able to start training full time within 18 months of applying.
There is no CEGEP (public college) step, since a Secondary V diploma is enough, but controllers in the Montreal region must be fluent in English and French.
Finish Secondary V
Age 16 or 17
A DES (Secondary School Diploma) or an equivalent is the only education requirement. No aviation experience is needed.
Work on both languages
Before you apply
Nav Canada requires fluent English and French for the Montreal Flight Information Region. Elsewhere in Canada, English alone is enough.
Apply to Nav Canada
Months
From age 18, as a Canadian citizen or permanent resident. Aptitude tests and interviews come first, and you must be able to start training within 18 months.
Medical and security checks
Weeks to months
A Transport Canada Category 2 medical, a security clearance and a drug test that includes cannabis.
Paid training, then a licence
Varies
Classroom, simulator and on the job training at the regional area control centre. Pay starts at $58,606 a year and rises to $61,337 after one year.
Work in Quebec
After licensing
Quebec had about 800 jobs in 2024 across controllers, flight service specialists and flight dispatchers. Job Bank rates the Quebec outlook as moderate for 2025 to 2027.
Things you don't need, but that help.
Area control centre
Aircraft between airports. Licensed pay starts at $143,513, against $104,258 in a tower.
Tower
Aircraft taking off, landing and taxiing at one airport.
Terminal control
The busy airspace around a major airport.
Instructor or supervisor
Training new controllers or running a shift.
Flight service specialist
A related job advising pilots at smaller airports. Some people start here.
A private pilot licence
Not required, but it helps you understand what pilots can actually do.
French
Opens Montreal and Ottawa, and pays.
Experience with shift work
Nights and rotating shifts are permanent, not a phase.
Day to day, pros and cons, where you'd work.
Shifts rotate through days, evenings and nights in short blocks. You plug in beside the controller you are relieving, listen until you have the picture, then take over. You work a position for about 90 minutes to 2 hours and then take a mandatory break, because attention fades. Busy periods are intense and quiet periods are long. The operations workweek is around 34 hours because of how demanding position time is.
The good
The hard parts
Things people don't tell you.
Job Bank's highest median for air traffic controllers is in New Brunswick, $75.19 an hour, home of the Moncton area control centre. Newfoundland and Labrador, home of Gander, is next at $70.70.
Job Bank reports that about 99% of Canadian air traffic controllers receive at least one non-wage benefit such as a pension or insurance.
Traffic crossing the North Atlantic is worked from Gander, Newfoundland. When North American airspace closed on September 11, 2001, the town took in about 6,700 travellers from 38 diverted passenger jets.
Every list is built from the same numbers shown above, so you can see where this career sits next to the others.
Air first, then the rest of the field. See every career in transport.
Last checked October 2026. Pay figures are typical full-time annual amounts in Canadian dollars, based on Government of Canada Job Bank wage data and published salary grids. They vary by province, employer and experience. Tuition is for domestic students. How every figure on this site is sourced and checked.
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