What Does Airways Do?
Airrways is a State-owned Enterprise (SOE), a fully-owned subsidiary of the NZ Government operating as a commercial business. Our staff of 750 deliver the following services to both NZ and the international community:
- Control all air movements within NZ’s 30 million sq km's of controlled airspace (over 1 million movements annually)
- Develop, install and maintain critical infrastructure and flight path systems through out New Zealand
- Manage air traffic control towers and radar centres (Airways maintains NZ’s 2 radar centres, 7 international airports, 15 regional airports and 3 military bases)
- Provide technical and engineering services to NZ airports
- Design airspace requirements
- Develop maps and charts of airspace requirements for use by pilots and navigators
- Train air traffic controllers for both the domestic and international market
- Provide flight inspection services for airports throughout Australasia and the South Pacific Operate consultancy services throughout Asia, Pacific and the Middle East
- Collaborate in international forums on aviation environmental and sustainability initiatives
What is Air Traffic Control (ATC)?
In absolute simple terms, Air Traffic Controllers stop aircraft collisions in the air and on the ground.
The company does this through the provision of Air Navigation Services (ANS) and associated services in New Zealand and internationally.
ANS comprises:
- air traffic management - through air traffic control, aircraft flow management and flight information and alerting services.
- navigation services - the navigation infrastructure and supporting services used by aircraft to navigate their path
- communications - Airways operates a sophisticated communications system throughout the country, which includes everything from satellite coverage to cell phones.
Air traffic control is a combination of human expertise and leading edge technology. Airways owns and installs air navigation and communications systems which provide guidance to aircraft flying through New Zealand airspace. These systems include:
- Radar (primary and secondary)
- Satellite navigation
- Navigation aids
- Non-directional beacons (NDBs)
- Instrument landing
- Airfield lighting
- Oceanic control
This technology is supported by a range of technical and professional staff:
- Airspace designers
- Software developers and engineers
- Specialist technicians
- Flight information officers
- Air traffic controllers
Airways Career Options
Airways is recruiting now for Air Traffic Controllers - we need young people with attitude! We offer great pay and benefits, a fantastic lifestyle career and the opportunity to work anywhere in New Zealand (and the world for that matter). It's your choice!
But it's not only Air Traffic Controllers we need to make our organisation great - we also employ software specialists, technicians, engineers, chart and map designers, communications and surveillance professionals as well as corporate, admin and support staff to help make your world possible. We're a team of almost 750 fantastic people, working all over NZ, doing all manner of cool stuff in the aviation industry. Take a look at the opportunities on this site and come join in the fun
All situations vacant are listed on our Current Vacancies page.
What are the Career Options?
If you want to be an air traffic controller (ATC):
then we can offer you opportunities throughout NZ and the world! Training takes around 6 months at our campus in Christchurch; then you'll get to train on the job at one of our 17 regional or military towers. Once you're fully qualified, you can stay in the regions; work at one of our Main Trunk Towers in Christchurch, Wellington or Auckland; in our Radar Centre in Christchurch or Oceanic Centre in Auckland.
For more information Click Here
If you want to be a technician or engineer:
then we can send you just about anywhere in NZ too! We have techs and engineers based in Christchurch, Queenstown, Nelson, Wellington, Palmerston North and Auckland. We also offer a technical trainee programme for students wanting to get into the aviation industry.
For more information Click Here.
If you have another professional qualification:
are you a lawyer, accountant, software designer, IT whizz, communications specialist or HR expert? Then just maybe we have a role for you at Airways. Our professional and management positions are based at our head office in Wellington; our corporate office in Christchurch and our Oceanic centre in Auckland.
Or you are keen to look at a support role:
Then check out what we have on offer in a city or region near you! Most support roles are based in Christchurch, Wellington or Auckland, but we do sometimes have vacancies in the regions.
Tales from the Tower
Alice Palmer
Alice Palmer is living proof that complaining about your job can change your life! Alice was working at an entry-level government job in Wellington that largely consisted of pushing paper around and staring into a computer screen. One evening, Alice's flatmate had a friend over for dinner and halfway through her agonizing recount of her boring day at work, the dinner guest said ‘You should try out my job’. He was an Air Traffic Controller (ATC).
“My flatmate’s friend was an ATC at Wellington Tower, so he said to come up to the tower for a visit to see what I thought. I went up there on a sunny day and I was hooked within five minutes. I had no aviation background whatsoever.
I just thought it [ATC] looked cool because you got to talk to planes, the view was amazing and there was a real sense of responsibility! I just knew this is what I should be doing.”
Exactly 12 months after farewell drinks at her old job, Alice was enjoying celebration drinks at Airways upon completion of Ab Initio training to become an ATC.
Training to be an ATC happens in Christchurch and each Ab Initio intake is usually around 6-8 students. It is not, as Alice soon discovered, for the faint-hearted.
“It was full on. There’s a high workload and high expectations on you to achieve. But in saying that, there is also enormous support to ensure you do succeed. The instructors stay until you get it, they are so passionate. The thing I liked is that you know exactly what’s expected of you right from the start. It’s not like university where you sort of go along and sometimes wonder what you should be doing or focusing on; training to become an ATC you know what you need to be learning and there’s not a single moment wasted.”
After 7 months at Airways Training centre, Alice was posted to the regions where she undertook just over 4 months of on-the-job training at Woodbourne Tower in Blenheim. She has now rated and is working full-time in her brand-new career.
“Coming out the other side [of training] is just awesome. I started with no idea about ATC and in just one year, I’ve got a job I love.”
Karen Bradley
Karen Bradley has traded apertures for aircraft with the help of Airways New Zealand. A former self-employed photographer, Karen is now working towards her air traffic controller rating at Tauranga Airport . Having been indirectly involved in the aviation industry for some time (her partner Tim is a pilot), Karen had taken a keen interest in air traffic control.
"However I never really saw myself doing it until a couple of years ago when I started getting a bit tired of being self- employed and began looking for a career change.''
Enrolling in Airways New Zealand's Diploma in Air Traffic Control, Karen made the shift from Mt Maunganui to Christchurch in May last year for the six-month initial training programme.
"Returning to study for the first time since my Bachelor of Media Arts and the prospect of not earning anything during that time was daunting but I found myself really looking forward to it. Being away from Tim and changing to a whole new mindset were also really hard, but once I started my training I knew this was exactly what I wanted to do and really enjoyed living in Christchurch .''
She says she particularly enjoyed using the Christchurch training centre's state-of-the-art computer-generated airport simulator.
"It makes training so much more fun and realistic. You really feel like you are getting a good grounding for the real thing.''
Fortunately for Karen, the real thing meant coming home to Bay of Plenty .
"I felt pretty well prepared for my first day at Tauranga, although there's always a bit of apprehension. However, I got a fantastic welcome on my first day and found that my training had given me all the basics I needed to know and really set me up well.''
Her job involves controlling the planes from the terminal, out onto the runway, up into the sky, and all the way to wherever they're headed, until they're parked up at the terminal again.
In controlled airspace, whatever the destination, whatever the aircraft, there's an air traffic controller always in contact with the pilots making sure they're safe. The controller will tell them what the weather's doing, where the other planes are, and anything else they need to know to make sure they get up and down again safely.
"Tauranga is a busy aerodrome and it is just getting busier all the time," says Karen.
She says she particularly enjoys the fact the job is never boring and no two days are ever the same.
"While we have a small team here, there's always someone else in the tower with you. The time really just flies by and you have to be on the ball all the time. We have morning and afternoon shifts which I really like and I'm also looking forward to achieving my rating which will mean I'll be able to leave my work at the door rather than taking it home. Really, the whole package appeals to me.''
Oliver Gibbs
Oliver Gibbs is fairly new to air traffic control (ATC). He graduated in September last year and now looks after air traffic across some of NZ’s 30million kms of airspace. It was a career he’d never even dreamed of – until about a year ago when he saw something in the paper about Airways NZ, the company that provides air traffic control services around New Zealand and the Pacific.
“At the time, I was driving tourists around Wellington during the day and working in a pub at night. I had an interest in aviation but to be honest, I had never considered ATC as an option. I remember my maths teacher at high school left to become an air traffic controller and that had always reinforced to me that you had to be really brainy to do this job.
Like most people, I thought ATC was only for people who went to university and did maths and physics. I had no idea you could walk off the street and into ATC as a career if you had the right skills.”
Those ‘right skills’ include the ability to make good decisions fast; to be able to think and visualize in 3-dimensions; assertiveness; the ability to think and plan ahead; to be confident and get on well with people.
“The minute I thought about ATC as a career option for me, it made sense. And it wasn’t until I’d completed the on-line tests that I even realized I had the skills that Airways wanted in an ATC.
From what I’ve come from - driving a bus and working in a bar – I’m just so much more challenged and satisfied now. Once you get through your training, you’re guaranteed a job and working for Airways means you can move around the company and around the country. It’s all good.”
Oliver’s ATC career took off from simply logging onto the Airways website. He filled in the on line application form and underwent some written aptitude tests, followed by a short interview.
Next he completed a day-long assessment centre, before being accepted into the formal training programme. Training lasts an average 9-15 months and despite it initially being “intense”, there are lots of hands-on and practical learning opportunities, so you’re not confined to learning out of enormous text books and lumbered with a huge student debt.
“Training was pretty full-on, but it’s completed in a pretty quick timeframe and before you know it, you’re on the job – talking to real pilots in real planes. That is such a rush the first few times.”
Oliver’s advice to anyone thinking about a career in air traffic control: “Just do it. Get on the internet and fill out the application form. Talk to people about ATC and come in and see for yourself what it’s all about.”
Have you got what it takes?
Attitude and aptitude - if you have the right kind of both, you're already on your way towards becoming an ATC.
We look for special people - people with the ability to visualize and react to situations in the right kind of way. At the end of Airways training for ATC you will be awarded a Level 7 Diploma through NZQA. It’ll be pretty full on training - no written assignments but plenty of information to come to grips with that you will need to know to do air traffic control.
Am I eligible?
In order to be eligible to train to become an Air Traffic Controller you will need to :
- Be decisive and goal focused
- Be able to handle a theory-based course and then apply it in a practical situation
- Be a team player
- Able to mentally picture objects moving in three dimensions
- Have excellent communication skills
- Have obtained a minimum of Level 2 NCEA pass (12 credits pass in Maths at Level 1 and 8 credits in English at Level 2) and 42 other credits at Level 3 or equivalent. (Previously this would have been a pass in School Certificate Maths (C or higher or 50% or higher), a pass Six Form Certificate English (Level 5 or lower) and/or have a NZ PPL or CPL.
- Be able to meet the requirements for issue of a Civil Aviation Authority class three medical.
- Have New Zealand Residency.
- Be aged 20 (or older) when you start training (you can apply now and we'll book you onto the first course you are eligible for.
Check for yourself if you have what it takes
Have a go at the aptitude tests on our practise test page to see if you have the right stuff.
Click here to view tests and games that may help you decide if you have what it takes