Selection of AB Initio Air Traffic Controllers and its Implementation in Turkey

Importance of air traffic management and the role of air traffic controller has been increasing in air transportation. Selection and training of qualified candidates affect controllers' future performance. Controllers need assessment and finding the qualified candidates are required in the beginning of this process. Job requirements of controllers are determined using detailed job analyses. Various methods and tools have been used such as internet and media resources to increase the number of applicants meeting with these requirements. Before starting the selection process, planning of practices, training of selection staff, cost-benefit analysis, selection oftests, assessment criteria and cut-off scores must be determined. Various methods and tests are used during the selection process. Successful candidates with high scores in selection tests and eligible medical and reference checks should be selected. It is observed that candidate selection process hardly complies with the international standards. This study aims at identifYing implementations and problems of ab-initio air traffic controller selection process in Turkey. Semi-structured interviews were done with authorized personnel in Directorate General Civil Aviation, General Directorate of State Airports Authority and School of Civil Aviation and implementations of Eurocontrol are researched. In addition, by giving a questionnaire to controllers, data regarding the thoughts of controllers were collected. These data were collected from 261 controllers working at 5 major airports in 2007, in Turkey are analyzed by using Pearson correlation, t-test and ANOVA test in SPSS environment. Results indicate that thoughts of controllers vary consistently with the school of graduation, job degree, unit, working position and airport according to individual job requirements, factors ofjob application, selection tests applied, personal attributes and issues regarding job environment