What this theme covers
People, Skills & Next-Gen addresses the workforce dimension of ATM at a moment of structural challenge. The post-pandemic traffic recovery has exposed a controller capacity gap that cannot be closed quickly — ab initio training takes three to five years and attrition from the operational workforce is running above replacement rates at several major ANSPs.
At ASW 2026 the track covers the ATC recruitment and training pipeline: how ANSPs are expanding ab initio capacity, reducing time-to-validate through simulation-led training approaches, and managing the transition from competency-based licensing frameworks to the next generation of controller qualification standards.
The track addresses the automation paradox: as AI-assisted tools reduce workload and handle routine tasks, the skill sets controllers need are shifting from manual aircraft separation to human-machine collaboration — and the training and assessment systems have not yet caught up with what operationally effective automated ATC looks like.
The Tomorrow's Voices session — based on annual survey data from aviation professionals under 30 — provides the empirical view of what Gen Z aviation workers value, what drives them away from the industry, and what the employment proposition must look like to attract the next generation in a competitive labour market.
Why it matters now
European ANSPs need to recruit and validate thousands of additional air traffic controllers before 2030 to maintain current capacity, absorb planned traffic growth, and replace an ageing workforce approaching retirement age. The demographic pressure is structural and documented — it was known before the pandemic and accelerated by the early retirement incentives many ANSPs offered during the 2020 traffic collapse.
The workforce challenge is inseparable from the automation agenda. AI-assisted tools are being introduced partly to extend the operational envelope of existing controller numbers — but the efficiency gains depend on controllers being trained to work effectively with automation, which requires new competency frameworks that do not yet exist at scale.
Five questions, answered
How large is the ATC controller shortage and what is causing it?
The ATC controller shortage in Europe and globally results from three converging pressures: a demographic bulge of experienced controllers approaching retirement age following the high-recruitment years of the 1990s expansion; pandemic-related early retirement incentives that removed controllers from the operational workforce before the traffic recovery; and ab initio training pipelines that were scaled back during the 2020–21 traffic collapse and have not yet recovered to the throughput needed.
The consequence is a gap between available controller hours and the hours needed to manage current and projected traffic at existing sector configurations. ANSPs are managing the gap through overtime, extended shift patterns, temporary sector merges, and in some cases planned capacity reductions during peak periods. The fix is time-limited: a recruit entering ab initio training today will not be operational for three to five years.
What is ab initio controller training and how is it evolving?
Ab initio controller training is the programme that takes a candidate with no prior ATC experience through the full qualification path to an operational controller licence. The conventional programme takes three to five years and combines theoretical instruction, simulator training, and on-the-job training (OJT) with a qualified supervisor before the candidate achieves an operational rating.
The 2026 evolution is simulation-led acceleration: high-fidelity simulation platforms now deliver the traffic complexity and scenario variety previously only achievable through OJT on live traffic, compressing the time to first rating. Competency-based training and assessment (CBTA) frameworks replace fixed-hour curricula with performance milestones, allowing faster validation of candidates who demonstrate proficiency while identifying struggling trainees earlier. Several ANSPs report reducing time-to-first-operational-rating by six to twelve months through these approaches.
How does automation change the skills that controllers need?
Automation in ATC changes the controller's role from direct aircraft separation — predicting conflicts and issuing clearances — towards supervising automated tools, monitoring for cases where automation reaches the boundaries of its design envelope, and handling the complex and ambiguous situations that cannot be automated. The skills required shift from procedural precision under time pressure to situational awareness, trust calibration, and effective human-machine teaming.
The training implication is that current competency frameworks, designed around manual ATC operations, do not adequately describe or assess the skills needed for effective automated ATC. New frameworks being developed in 2025–26 address cognitive load management in high-automation environments, appropriate monitoring of AI decision support, and the skill maintenance programmes that prevent skill degradation in controllers who rarely exercise manual separation.
What does Gen Z want from an aviation career?
Survey data from the Tomorrow's Voices initiative — annual research among aviation professionals under 30 — consistently shows that the values driving Gen Z career choices differ from those that structured aviation employment in previous decades. The dominant themes are: purpose (wanting work that contributes visibly to a meaningful outcome rather than an abstract corporate goal); flexibility (work patterns and location flexibility that conventional shift-based ATC cannot easily offer); rapid competency development (preference for roles with clear skill progression rather than seniority-based advancement); and diversity and inclusion (openness to the industry correlates strongly with visible representation and stated inclusion commitments).
For ANSPs, the Gen Z attraction challenge is structural: ATC is a highly specialised, location-bound, shift-based role that does not map naturally onto the flexibility preferences of the cohort. The 2026 sessions examine what the competitive employment proposition looks like — including career pathways, development investment, and operational culture changes — that can close the gap.
What is competency-based licensing and how does it change controller qualifications?
Competency-based licensing replaces the historical model of controller qualification — where a candidate needed a specified number of hours of training — with a model based on demonstrated performance against defined competency standards, regardless of how long it took to achieve them. A controller can achieve a rating in less than the historical average time if they demonstrate proficiency; equally, a struggling candidate can be identified and supported earlier rather than progressing by default.
The ICAO competency framework for air traffic controllers, published in 2017 and progressively adopted by regulatory authorities including EASA, defines the core competencies against which controllers are assessed throughout their career rather than only at initial qualification. The 2026 question at ASW is how rapidly ANSPs are implementing CBTA frameworks operationally, what the training system design challenges are, and whether the regulator approval path is moving fast enough to support the workforce timeline.
Sessions covering this theme
ASW 2026 sessions under this track cover the ATC workforce pipeline, Tomorrow's Voices Gen Z survey results, simulation-led training advances, and competency-based licensing implementation.
What ASW 2025 told us about this theme
ASW 2025 raised the workforce crisis as an operational emergency for the first time, with CANSO publishing its first global controller gap analysis. Read the ASW 2025 retrospective
For organisations exhibiting at ASW 2026: Your workforce, training, or HR technology content can be structured like this. Maxifi Digital turns conference sessions into AI-citable authority pages in four weeks. See the Conference Sprint →