FAA To Revamp Dispatcher Certification

Editorial Staff

Monday, October 27, 2014 at 12:00 AM ET

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Key Takeaways:

The FAA has identified a lack of consistent policy for approving and overseeing aircraft dispatcher certification courses, leading to widespread inconsistencies in training standards.
To address these issues, the FAA has released a draft revision to the Aircraft Dispatcher Certification rules and is accepting public comments until December 22.
Aircraft dispatchers are critical personnel, especially for Part 121 operations, and currently must complete 200 hours of training, pass an FAA knowledge exam, and undergo recurring competency checks.

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The job of aircraft dispatcher may not get much attention, but dispatchers are essential to flight departments around the country, and the FAA has decided it needs to be more vigilant about how they are trained. There are 44 FAA-approved dispatcher certification courses in operation, the FAA said last week, but the FAA has no consistent policy for approval and oversight of these courses. This lack of policy “has led to a wide range of inconsistencies with respect to individual course approvals,” the FAA said. A draft revision to the Aircraft Dispatcher Certification rules has been posted online, and the FAA is accepting comments on it through Dec. 22.

All FAA-approved schools must offer 200 hours of training. Applicants also must pass an FAA knowledge exam to qualify for an FAA Aircraft Dispatcher Certificate. Dispatchers also must pass recurring currency and competency checks, as well as recurrent training and operational familiarization flights. Part 121 scheduled operations are required to have FAA-certified dispatchers on staff, and many other operators hire them as well.