NOC 2021 · 72601 · TEER 2
Air traffic controllers and related occupations
Unit group 72601 of the National Occupational Classification, 2021 Version 1.0.
Check which category draws this code qualifies for
What this group covers
Air traffic controllers direct air traffic within assigned airspace, and control moving aircraft and service vehicles at airports. Flight service specialists provide pilots with flight information essential to aviation safety. Flight dispatchers authorize airline flights over assigned routes. Air traffic controllers and flight service specialists are employed by NAV Canada and the Canadian Forces. Flight dispatchers are employed by airline and air services companies and by the Canadian Forces.
Example job titles
As Statistics Canada publishes them. Yours may be worded differently and still belong here.
- aerospace control operator - Canadian Armed Forces
- air traffic control assistant
- air traffic control chief
- air traffic control officer
- air traffic controller (ATC)
- air traffic controller (ATC) - Canadian Armed Forces
- air traffic coordinator
- airline dispatcher
- airport air traffic controller
- chief air traffic controller
- enroute air traffic controller
- flight dispatch assistant
- flight dispatcher
- flight operations officer
- flight service specialist (FSS)
- head air traffic controller
- instrument flight rules air traffic controller
- terminal air traffic controller
- tower controller - air traffic
- visual flight rules air traffic controller
What it pays, and where it is hiring
Job Bank publishes a wage estimate and a three-year employment outlook for each occupation, region by region. Both are below as published — where an estimate is missing from the source it is missing here too, because the alternative is inventing one.
Across Canada
$54.88 an hour
Low $25.25, high $106.19
Where it pays most
- Moncton--Richibucto · New Brunswick$80.25
- South Coast--Burin Peninsula · Newfoundland and Labrador$76.86
- Kitchener--Waterloo--Barrie · Ontario$73.95
- Winnipeg · Manitoba$71.74
- Edmonton · Alberta$67.88
Economic regions only. A province’s figure is an average over the regions inside it, so including one would rank a province above its own best region and read as a finding.
By province and territory
| Where | Median hourly | Low to high | Outlook 2025–2027 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Newfoundland and Labrador | $70.70 | $35.70 – $107.83 | Undetermined |
| Prince Edward Island | Not published | Not published | Undetermined |
| Nova Scotia | $44.88 | $26.64 – $70.56 | Undetermined |
| New Brunswick | $75.19 | $39.08 – $103.00 | Moderate |
| Quebec | $47.84 | $26.85 – $83.21 | Moderate |
| Ontario | $52.96 | $27.38 – $101.19 | Undetermined |
| Manitoba | $64.29 | $31.95 – $105.26 | Good |
| Saskatchewan | $43.91 | $30.30 – $67.39 | Undetermined |
| Alberta | $56.72 | $27.31 – $98.93 | Good |
| British Columbia | $54.95 | $29.87 – $97.61 | Limited |
| Yukon Territory | $54.46 | $33.02 – $75.95 | Undetermined |
| Northwest Territories | $56.28 | $32.00 – $72.33 | Undetermined |
| Nunavut | Not published | Not published | Undetermined |
By economic region
The 31 economic regions where Job Bank publishes a wage or a rated outlook, of 72.
| Where | Province | Median hourly | Low to high | Outlook 2025–2027 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Avalon Peninsula | Newfoundland and Labrador | $57.15 | $27.68 – $69.46 | Undetermined |
| South Coast--Burin Peninsula | Newfoundland and Labrador | $76.86 | $40.24 – $102.31 | Undetermined |
| Annapolis Valley | Nova Scotia | $40.54 | $25.25 – $68.42 | Undetermined |
| Halifax | Nova Scotia | $52.92 | $34.53 – $90.91 | Undetermined |
| Moncton--Richibucto | New Brunswick | $80.25 | $38.60 – $102.26 | Good |
| Saint John--St. Stephen | New Brunswick | Not published | Not published | Good |
| Fredericton--Oromocto | New Brunswick | Not published | Not published | Good |
| Capitale-Nationale | Quebec | $49.55 | $27.67 – $71.38 | Moderate |
| Montérégie | Quebec | $57.19 | $32.06 – $95.68 | Moderate |
| Montréal | Quebec | $50.24 | $25.65 – $82.53 | Moderate |
| Laval | Quebec | $53.57 | $29.65 – $81.09 | Moderate |
| Laurentides | Quebec | $52.79 | $29.08 – $90.01 | Very good |
| Outaouais | Quebec | $47.19 | $29.07 – $66.03 | Undetermined |
| Abitibi-Témiscamingue | Quebec | $46.15 | $28.77 – $63.94 | Undetermined |
| Saguenay--Lac-Saint-Jean | Quebec | $43.66 | $25.49 – $61.46 | Undetermined |
| Ottawa | Ontario | $56.35 | $34.50 – $90.92 | Undetermined |
| Kingston--Pembroke | Ontario | $48.13 | $28.35 – $66.46 | Undetermined |
| Toronto | Ontario | $51.71 | $26.47 – $93.47 | Undetermined |
| Kitchener--Waterloo--Barrie | Ontario | $73.95 | $42.39 – $112.33 | Undetermined |
| Hamilton--Niagara Peninsula | Ontario | $67.19 | $40.51 – $109.40 | Undetermined |
| London | Ontario | $54.73 | $34.50 – $76.27 | Undetermined |
| Northeast | Ontario | $52.37 | $29.95 – $71.44 | Undetermined |
| Northwest | Ontario | $50.35 | $30.14 – $74.04 | Undetermined |
| Winnipeg | Manitoba | $71.74 | $35.88 – $100.97 | Good |
| Prince Albert | Saskatchewan | $46.55 | $36.47 – $62.27 | Undetermined |
| Calgary | Alberta | $53.11 | $26.14 – $83.51 | Good |
| Edmonton | Alberta | $67.88 | $39.11 – $102.27 | Good |
| Wood Buffalo--Cold Lake | Alberta | $49.05 | $28.47 – $58.58 | Undetermined |
| Vancouver Island and Coast | British Columbia | $54.07 | $32.24 – $77.85 | Undetermined |
| Lower Mainland | British Columbia | $65.55 | $34.28 – $96.63 | Limited |
| Thompson--Okanagan | British Columbia | $57.38 | $36.25 – $81.81 | Undetermined |
Job Bank rates employment prospects for each occupation in each economic region from very good to very limited over 2025–2027, and says “undetermined” where it has not got enough to rate. It is an assessment of prospects, not a count of vacancies.
The estimates on this page come from Small Area Estimation (2024).
Job Bank publishes an estimate for 24,364 of the 44,376 occupation-and-place pairs in this release. The rest are suppressed rather than modelled, and appear here as not published.
Wage estimates from the 2025 Wages release, revised 19 November 2025; employment outlooks from 2025-2027 Employment Outlooks - NOC 2021, released 8 December 2025. Both are updated annually. Estimates for different regions come from different surveys, so comparing two regions is exactly as sound as Job Bank’s own regional comparison and no more.
Source: Statistics Canada — National Occupational Classification 2021 V1.0; Employment and Social Development Canada — Job Bank wages; Employment and Social Development Canada — Job Bank 3-year employment outlooks. Data current as of 13 August 2026. NOC 2021 Version 1.0. The classification is versioned rather than dated — IRCC moved to it in November 2022, and a new version would be a new classification rather than an update.