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Commercial Pilots vs Air Traffic Controllers

Side-by-side · O*NET · BLS · AI-exposure research · Anthropic Economic Index

A factual, source-backed comparison of Commercial Pilots and Air Traffic Controllers on the dimensions both occupations carry. Every figure is a position within an independent published dataset — not a verdict on which job is better, safer, or more “future-proof.”

Commercial Pilots Air Traffic Controllers
Median pay · BLS OEWS
$122,670
$144,580
Employment · BLS OEWS
51,830
22,400
AI exposure (percentile) · task overlap, not automation
53rd pct
59th pct

At a glance

Dimension Commercial Pilots Air Traffic Controllers
Median pay $122,670 $144,580
Employment 51,830 22,400
Employment outlook (2024–34) · BLS projection About average (+5.1%) About average (+1.2%)
Annual openings · BLS projection 6,600 2,200
Typical education · O*NET Most occupations in this zone require training in vocational schools, related on-the-job experience, or an associate's degree. Most occupations in this zone require training in vocational schools, related on-the-job experience, or an associate's degree.
AI exposure · published exposure studies Moderate · 53rd pct Moderate · 59th pct
Global GenAI gradient · ILO ISCO-08 · via crosswalk 51st pct · 27% of tasks 59th pct · 31% of tasks
Observed AI use · Anthropic Economic Index — —
Mostly remote-capable · Dingel–Neiman No Yes

Pay and employment are BLS OEWS estimates; outlook and openings are BLS 2024–2034 projections; AI exposure and observed-use figures come from separate research and reflect exposure and usage, not predictions that either job will disappear. Compare like with like.

Skills

Shared: Customer and Personal Service, Monitoring, Problem Sensitivity, Perceptual Speed, Near Vision, English Language, Critical Thinking, Oral Comprehension, Oral Expression, Deductive Reasoning, Inductive Reasoning, Information Ordering, Selective Attention, Far Vision, Transportation, Active Listening, Judgment and Decision Making, Written Comprehension, Reading Comprehension, Speaking, Speech Recognition, Speech Clarity, Active Learning, Complex Problem Solving, Time Sharing, Geography, Public Safety and Security, Flexibility of Closure, Written Expression.

Specific to Commercial Pilots

  • Operation and Control
  • Operations Monitoring
  • Control Precision
  • Response Orientation
  • Reaction Time
  • Depth Perception
  • Spatial Orientation
  • Multilimb Coordination

Specific to Air Traffic Controllers

  • Speed of Closure
  • Coordination
  • Education and Training
  • Category Flexibility
  • Time Management
  • Visualization
  • Auditory Attention
  • Telecommunications

Knowledge, skills & abilities O*NET rates as important for each occupation. “Shared” are common to both; the columns list what is distinctive to each (top by the order O*NET surfaces).

Tools & technology

Shared: Office suite software , Data base user interface and query software , Flight control software .

Specific to Commercial Pilots

Specific to Air Traffic Controllers

Full profiles

This page is a summary. See the complete source-backed profile for Commercial Pilots or Air Traffic Controllers — tasks, the full skill graph, tools, work context, preparation, wages by percentile, industries, AI exposure and the AI work map.

More comparisons

Related occupations you can place side by side on the same sourced scale.

Sources for this page

Every figure above traces to a named public dataset and the exact release below — not hand-written opinion. See the full methodology for what each measure does and does not mean.

Data compiled June 2, 2026. Figures are estimates, not advice.

Cite this page
Plain

Singulariki. "Commercial Pilots vs Air Traffic Controllers." Singulariki: a source-backed encyclopedia of work. Built from O*NET 30.3; BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) May 2024; BLS Employment Projections 2024–2034; Anthropic Economic Index v4 (2026-01-15) + v2 (2025-03-27); Microsoft “Working with AI” working-with-ai; “GPTs are GPTs” (Eloundou et al.) arXiv 2303.10130; AI Occupational Exposure (AIOE) Felten, Raj & Seamans; ILO / Gmyrek et al. GenAI exposure gradient 2025; IBS O*NET-SOC ↔ ISCO-08 occupation crosswalk 2022; Frey & Osborne (2013) frey-osborne-automation; Dingel & Neiman (2020) dingel-neiman-workathome. Accessed June 7, 2026. https://singulariki.com/compare/commercial-pilots-vs-air-traffic-controllers

APA

Singulariki. (2026). Commercial Pilots vs Air Traffic Controllers. Singulariki: a source-backed encyclopedia of work. Retrieved June 7, 2026, from https://singulariki.com/compare/commercial-pilots-vs-air-traffic-controllers

BibTeX 
@misc{singulariki-commercial-pilots-vs-air-traffic-controllers,
  title  = {Commercial Pilots vs Air Traffic Controllers},
  author = {{Singulariki}},
  year   = {2026},
  note   = {O*NET 30.3; BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) May 2024; BLS Employment Projections 2024–2034; Anthropic Economic Index v4 (2026-01-15) + v2 (2025-03-27); Microsoft “Working with AI” working-with-ai; “GPTs are GPTs” (Eloundou et al.) arXiv 2303.10130; AI Occupational Exposure (AIOE) Felten, Raj & Seamans; ILO / Gmyrek et al. GenAI exposure gradient 2025; IBS O*NET-SOC ↔ ISCO-08 occupation crosswalk 2022; Frey & Osborne (2013) frey-osborne-automation; Dingel & Neiman (2020) dingel-neiman-workathome. Accessed June 7, 2026},
  url    = {https://singulariki.com/compare/commercial-pilots-vs-air-traffic-controllers}
}

Citations name the underlying public dataset releases — they reflect what this page is built from, not just the URL.