Transportation and Material Moving · Holland code CRE
Airfield Operations Specialists
Ensure the safe takeoff and landing of commercial and military aircraft. Duties include coordination between air-traffic control and maintenance personnel, dispatching, using airfield landing and navigational aids, implementing airfield safety procedures, monitoring and maintaining flight records, and applying knowledge of weather information.
Also called: Airport Operations Agent, Airport Operations Coordinator, Airport Operations Officer, Airport Operations Specialist, Airfield Operations Specialist, Flight Follower, Operations Agent, Operations Coordinator.
O*NET 53-2022.00
At a glance
- US median annual pay
- $56,850
- Middle half earn $42,000 to $77,340. BLS OEWS, May 2025.
- Most common education
- Bachelor's Degree
- 51% of workers surveyed by O*NET report this level.
- Preparation needed
- Job Zone 3 of 5
- Medium preparation. Zone 1 is little or none; zone 5 is graduate-level.
What the work involves
The tasks workers in this occupation rate as most important, from the O*NET survey.
- Inspect airfield conditions to ensure compliance with federal regulatory requirements.
- Implement airfield safety procedures to ensure a safe operating environment for personnel and aircraft operation.
- Conduct inspections of the airport property and perimeter to maintain controlled access to airfields.
- Assist in responding to aircraft and medical emergencies.
- Initiate or conduct airport-wide coordination of snow removal on runways and taxiways.
- Manage wildlife on and around airport grounds.
- Coordinate communications between air traffic control and maintenance personnel.
- Coordinate with agencies to meet aircrew requirements for billeting, messing, refueling, ground transportation, and transient aircraft maintenance.
Skills and knowledge it leans on
Skills
- Active Listening4.0 / 5
- Monitoring4.0 / 5
- Reading Comprehension3.8 / 5
- Speaking3.8 / 5
- Critical Thinking3.8 / 5
- Writing3.4 / 5
Knowledge areas
- Public Safety and Security4.5 / 5
- Transportation4.3 / 5
- English Language4.2 / 5
- Customer and Personal Service4.0 / 5
- Education and Training3.7 / 5
- Telecommunications3.6 / 5
Importance ratings on O*NET’s 1 to 5 scale. Higher means the occupation depends on it more.
Who tends to enjoy it
How strongly this occupation draws on each of the six Holland interest types, which is the same profile the career interests test compares you against.
- Realistic61
- Investigative42
- Artistic0
- Social25
- Enterprising58
- Conventional65
The same work abroad
Other countries classify jobs differently, so these are the closest matches through the international ISCO-08 standard, not exact equivalents.
European occupation titles (ESCO)
- air traffic manager · DE Luftverkehrsleiter/Luftverkehrsleiterin · FR superviseur trafic aérien/superviseuse trafic aérien
- airspace manager · DE Luftraummanager/Luftraummanagerin · FR responsable de la gestion de l'espace aérien
- aviation ground systems engineer · DE Ingenieur Flughafeninfrastruktur/Ingenieurin Flughafeninfrastruktur · FR responsable zone avion
- aviation safety officer · DE Sicherheitsbeauftragter Luftverkehr/Sicherheitsbeauftragte Luftverkehr · FR agent de sûreté aérienne/agente de sûreté aérienne
- airport operations officer · DE Flugsicherungslotse An- und Abflug/Flugsicherungslotsin An- und Abflug · FR responsable d’exploitation aéroportuaire
- aviation inspector · DE Flugverkehrskontrolleur/Flugverkehrskontrolleurin · FR inspecteur de l’aéronautique/inspectrice de l’aéronautique
Closest UK occupation groups (SOC 2020)
- Purchasing managers and directors (1134)61,700 employed
- Directors in logistics, warehousing and transport (1140)30,300 employed
- Managers in logistics (1243)34,900 employed
Employment is the UK Annual Population Survey for April 2025 to March 2026, all workers in the group, which can be broader than this one occupation.
Pay across Europe, for the whole group
Median annual earnings of all employees in “Technicians and associate professionals”. This is the broad ISCO group this occupation falls in, not the occupation itself, so treat it as context for the wage level, not as a salary for this job.
| Country | Median pay |
|---|---|
| Belgium | €50,992 |
| Austria | €46,986 |
| Germany | €44,473 |
| Netherlands | €42,448 |
| Ireland | €41,613 |
| Sweden | €41,155 |
| Italy | €34,882 |
| France | €34,816 |
| Spain | €29,757 |
| Portugal | €18,080 |
| Poland | €12,108 |
Eurostat Structure of Earnings Survey, businesses with ten or more employees outside public administration, in euro and not adjusted for the cost of living. Reference years differ between sources: the US, Japan and Europe figures on this page come from different survey years, so compare them as rough levels, not to the euro or yen.
Exposure to AI
This occupation sits in the middle third of the 774 occupations scored, with an exposure score of +0.48. The scores are standardized across those occupations, so 0 is the average and a score of 1 is about one standard deviation above it.
Our note on reading it: the dataset links AI applications to the abilities that occupations require, so the score reflects overlap between the two. It is a comparison between occupations, not a forecast about jobs. It does not say whether exposure means tasks are replaced or workers get more done with the tools, and it says little about one employer or one role.
Source: Felten, E., Raj, M., & Seamans, R. (2021). Occupational, industry, and geographic exposure to artificial intelligence: A novel dataset and its potential uses. Strategic Management Journal, 42(12), 2195-2217. Matched to this page by 6-digit SOC code (53-2022).
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