Young air traffic controllers wanted: "We look more at talent than at school grades"

"We are not the ones with the trowels at the airport," clarifies the press spokeswoman for German Air Traffic Control (DFS), Kristina Kelek.

She strolls across the extensive grounds of the DFS campus in Langen, where there is a party atmosphere that day.

Music blares from speakers, stands with information, food and drinks are everywhere.

At times, up to 2,000 young people crowd the area.

As soon as you arrive, you have to queue in front of the DFS multi-storey car park.

The number plates show that the young people who are interested in this event come from all over Germany.

You want to find out more about the training opportunities at DFS.

Once you have worked your way through the wide range of information on the stands, it quickly becomes clear what the requirements of the job of air traffic controller are.

Good concentration, resistance to stress, the ability to work in a team, the ability to make important decisions quickly and good spatial thinking are some of the requirements.

So not a job for nerds, loners and procrastinators.

That's why Kelek also says: "In the selection process, we look more at talent than at school grades." This selection process usually lasts a week, during which the best are screened out.

150 of more than 6000 applications per year will get the chance of an apprenticeship.

Applicants must be no more than 24 years old and must be fluent in German and English.

First use after a year and a half

Anyone who does not manage to get an apprenticeship in Langen can try one of the subsidiaries of DFS, which looks after smaller airfields such as Memmingen.

After just one and a half years, the newcomers are allowed to pilot the aircraft, but only in cooperation with a coach.

After four years at the latest, they alone will be responsible for tens of thousands of passengers during a shift.

Here, too, air traffic controllers must be flexible.

Since air traffic control works 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, everyone has to be willing to work shifts, which is an advantage for women in particular.

The proportion of women has been increasing for years and is now over thirty percent, according to the spokeswoman.

2,200 air traffic controllers currently work at DFS.

1200 euros plus 400 euros housing benefit

Kristina Kelek describes the advantages of an apprenticeship at DFS.

"You don't have to bring any money with us," she alludes to the pilot training, which the trainees have to pay for in large parts themselves.

In the first year of training, the prospective air traffic controllers receive 1,200 euros plus 400 euros in housing benefits if they have to look for an apartment in the Langen area.

As soon as they work in practice, they receive 50,000 euros per year, if they are allowed to work alone, it is 100,000 euros.

But what about the future of flying?

Will so many air traffic controllers still be needed if business travelers are fewer because of online conferences, if holiday flights are no longer so affordable due to the rise in aviation fuel or if the EU could at some point ban short-haul flights for environmental reasons?

Questions to which Kelek has no answers either.

DFS is based on the current situation, everything else is a political decision.

However, Kelek refers to the environmental efforts of DFS.

The planes are guided in such a way that they do not take any unnecessary detours, new flight procedures reduce noise in residential areas overflown, and new technology always offers new opportunities.