The electronics that fly the plane: radios, navigation, autopilot, wiring. A 2-year diploma and one of the best-paid technician jobs in Canada.
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What you earn and what it costs to get there.
Licensed technician
$84,000
New graduate
$55,000
Senior, airline or lead
$119,000
Job Bank's national median is $40.47 an hour, about $84,000 a year full time. Airlines, business jet operators and manufacturers like Bombardier pay the most, and shift premiums and overtime add to it.
$26 to $30 an hour
New college graduate, about $55,000 a year
Graduates of Transport Canada approved programs are hired straight into hangars while they build the experience needed for a licence. Northern and remote operators often pay more to attract people.
$55 to $57 an hour
About $119,000 a year for senior licensed technicians
An AME (aircraft maintenance engineer) licence with an E rating lets you sign off avionics work, and that signature is what airlines pay for. Lead hands and inspectors go higher still.
Tuition, fees, exams and kit. Not rent, food or travel
A two year college diploma is essentially the whole cost, and it is low for a job paying over eighty thousand dollars at the median. The low end is tuition at about fifty five hundred dollars a year plus precision electronics tools and books. The high end adds a better tool set, safety gear and the Transport Canada licence application and exam fees. Graduates of approved programs skip the technical exams, which keeps the licensing end cheap, and student loans of this size are commonly cleared in a couple of years of work.
Total cost is about $12,000 to $15,000, low for a job that pays over $80,000 at the median. Student loans cover it; many graduates clear them in a couple of years.
Flight passes
Airline technicians and their families fly cheap or free on standby.
Union pay scales and pension
Major airline hangars are unionized.
Shift premiums
Aircraft are fixed at night. Nights and weekends pay extra.
Health and dental
Standard across airlines and manufacturers.
The exact path from high school to qualified.
A 2-year college diploma, then paid experience toward a Transport Canada licence.
High school diploma
Grade 12
Math and physics are essential. Electronics or computer courses help.
Avionics diploma
2 years
A 2-year Aviation Technician, Avionics Maintenance diploma at a Transport Canada approved college, such as Centennial in Toronto or Canadore in North Bay. Attendance and grade rules are strict: Centennial requires 95% attendance and 70% in every technical course to get the licence credit.
Get hired
Weeks to months
Airlines, repair shops, manufacturers and the air force hire graduates as apprentice technicians. You work under licensed engineers who sign off your work.
Build experience
2 to 3 years
An approved diploma counts for 18 months toward the experience Transport Canada requires. The rest, roughly 2 to 3 more years, comes from logged work.
AME (aircraft maintenance engineer) licence, E rating
After your experience
At 21 or older, with the experience logged, pass the Transport Canada regulatory exam. Approved graduates are exempt from the technical exams.
Physics
Electricity, radio waves and flight.
Math
Circuit analysis and navigation math.
Electronics or computer technology
Soldering, circuits and troubleshooting.
English
Aircraft manuals are precise and you sign legal records.
You can work on aircraft electronics without a licence, under supervision, from the day you graduate. To sign off maintenance yourself you need a Transport Canada AME (aircraft maintenance engineer) licence with an E rating for avionics: minimum age 21, logged experience, an approved training program and the regulatory exam. The licence is federal, so it works in every province.
Things you don't need, but that help.
AME (aircraft maintenance engineer) licence, E rating
The credential that lets you certify work. The biggest pay jump in the field.
Add an M rating
A second licence category covering airframes and engines. Dual-licensed technicians are rare and wanted by small operators.
Type training
Manufacturer courses on a specific aircraft, paid by the employer, tied to higher pay scales.
Inspection and quality roles
Senior technicians move into inspection, training and maintenance planning.
Soldering and bench skills
Practise before college; it shows.
Ham radio or electronics hobby
Radio theory is a large part of the diploma.
Security clearance eligibility
Airport access needs a clean background check.
Comfort with heights and confined spaces
Wiring runs through tail cones and under floors.
The Royal Canadian Air Force trains avionics systems technicians at its own expense and pays you while you learn. You commit to years of service, and the experience counts toward a civilian licence afterward. Many airline avionics technicians started in uniform.
Day to day, pros and cons, where you'd work.
Night shift in the hangar, 7pm to 7am, because the aircraft flies all day. A pilot has written up a faulty weather radar: pull the maintenance manual, run the built-in tests, trace the wiring, swap the unit, test it again and sign the logbook. Then a scheduled inspection: check antennas, batteries and connectors, update a navigation database. Every step documented. The aircraft leaves at 6am.
The good
The hard parts
Things people don't tell you.
Graduates of a Transport Canada approved avionics program get 18 months of experience credit toward the AME (aircraft maintenance engineer) E licence and skip the technical exams. Skip the approved program and you write every exam and log every month yourself.
Transport Canada will not issue an AME (aircraft maintenance engineer) licence to anyone under 21, no matter how much experience they have. Most technicians hit the experience requirement and the age at about the same time.
Bombardier in Montreal and Toronto, De Havilland in Alberta and dozens of parts makers employ avionics technicians on the factory floor, not just in hangars. Montreal is one of the world's few cities where a whole aircraft can be built from local suppliers.
Last checked September 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.