Direct pilots to runways when space is available or direct them to maintain a traffic pattern until there is space for them to land.

“Direct pilots to runways when space is available or direct them to maintain a traffic pattern until there is space for them to land.” is a core task performed by Air Traffic Controllers. Among the occupation's 23 rated tasks, workers place it 17th by importance (#7 most important). About 91% of workers say it is relevant to their job.

This is a single occupation-specific task statement from O*NET. The figures below describe how central the task is to the job and what independent studies measure about AI and this kind of work — not a prediction that the task will be automated.

Work activities this task rolls up to

O*NET groups concrete tasks into broader work activities shared across many occupations.

• Direct vehicle traffic. in Handling and Moving Objects

AI exposure

The OpenAI / Eloundou “GPTs are GPTs” study rates this task E0. No direct exposure — current language models give little or no time savings on this task.

Exposure measures whether a model could meaningfully speed the task up — it is an estimate of overlap with model capabilities, not a measure of whether the work will be done by software. The study's intermediate score (β) for this task is 0.00. Automation potential label: T1.

Other tasks in this occupation

• Inform pilots about nearby planes or potentially hazardous conditions, such as weather, speed and direction of wind, or visibility problems. · importance 4.9
• Issue landing and take-off authorizations or instructions. · importance 4.8
• Provide flight path changes or directions to emergency landing fields for pilots traveling in bad weather or in emergency situations. · importance 4.8
• Transfer control of departing flights to traffic control centers and accept control of arriving flights. · importance 4.8
• Alert airport emergency services in cases of emergency or when aircraft are experiencing difficulties. · importance 4.8
• Monitor or direct the movement of aircraft within an assigned air space or on the ground at airports to minimize delays and maximize safety. · importance 4.8
• Monitor aircraft within a specific airspace, using radar, computer equipment, or visual references. · importance 4.7
• Direct ground traffic, including taxiing aircraft, maintenance or baggage vehicles, or airport workers. · importance 4.7
• Contact pilots by radio to provide meteorological, navigational, or other information. · importance 4.6
• Maintain radio or telephone contact with adjacent control towers, terminal control units, or other area control centers to coordinate aircraft movement. · importance 4.6
• Determine the timing or procedures for flight vector changes. · importance 4.5
• Initiate or coordinate searches for missing aircraft. · importance 4.5
• Provide on-the-job training to new air traffic controllers. · importance 4.5
• Check conditions and traffic at different altitudes in response to pilots' requests for altitude changes. · importance 4.4

See all tasks on the Air Traffic Controllers page.

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.

• O*NET 30.3 U.S. Department of Labor / National Center for O*NET Development
• “GPTs are GPTs” (Eloundou et al.) arXiv 2303.10130 OpenAI / academic

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

@misc{singulariki-task-12734,
  title  = {Direct pilots to runways when space is available or direct them to maintain a traffic pattern until there is space for them to land.},
  author = {{Singulariki}},
  year   = {2026},
  note   = {O*NET 30.3; “GPTs are GPTs” (Eloundou et al.) arXiv 2303.10130. Accessed June 7, 2026},
  url    = {https://singulariki.com/tasks/task-12734}
}