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A person searching for dispatch schools will soon see that it is hard to navigate all the various "schools" that pop up on a search. The button above will direct you to a map of all the FAA certified Dispatch schools in the US. |
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To become an airline dispatcher, you must meet the following requirements: |
Many dispatchers will go to an academy or school and obtain their Dispatch Certificate and work for a smaller airline such as a regional airline or a charter company to build experience, and then apply to and move onto the main airline where they will spend the most of their career at.
Licensing and certification
A dispatcher must be certified by the aviation authority of the country in which they operate or have a base of operations, such as the DGCA in India and the FAA/DOT (Federal Aviation Administration/Department of Transportation) in the United States. In order to obtain a certificate, a candidate must demonstrate extensive knowledge of meteorology and of aviation in general, to a level comparable to the holder of an Airline Transport Pilot (ATP) certificate.
The FAA ATP and the FAA Dispatcher (ADX) written exams are similar. For airlines operating under 14 CFR PART 135, dispatching duties and responsibilities are actually designated to "flight followers." The main difference between a flight dispatcher and a flight follower is that the latter does not share legal responsibility for the operation of a flight. In addition, a flight follower is not required to obtain a dispatcher's certificate, although he or she is usually encouraged to do so by the airline for which they work and will probably not be employed as a flight follower if they do not have the dispatcher certificate.