Will AI replace Airfield Operations Specialists?
AI reaches some of this job’s work, but most of it stays with people.
31/100
Moderate exposure
More exposed to AI than 47% of US workers.
- AI already used in
- 4% of the work
- As AI tools mature: up to
- 61% of the work
What the job involves
Ensure the safe takeoff and landing of commercial and military aircraft. Duties include coordination between air-traffic control and maintenance personnel, dispatching, using airfield landing and navigational aids, implementing airfield safety procedures, monitoring and maintaining flight records, and applying knowledge of weather information.
Where AI reaches the work
The job’s main tasks, heaviest first, by how far AI reaches them.
Already happening(1)
- Provide aircrews with information and services needed for airfield management and flight planning.
Within reach(18)
- Implement airfield safety procedures to ensure a safe operating environment for personnel and aircraft operation.
- Perform and supervise airfield management activities, including mobile airfield management functions.
- Coordinate communications between air traffic control and maintenance personnel.
- Initiate or conduct airport-wide coordination of snow removal on runways and taxiways.
- Coordinate with agencies, such as air traffic control, civil engineers, or command posts, to ensure support of airfield management activities.
and 13 more
Out of reach(8)
- Inspect airfield conditions to ensure compliance with federal regulatory requirements.
- Conduct inspections of the airport property and perimeter to maintain controlled access to airfields.
- Assist in responding to aircraft and medical emergencies.
- Manage wildlife on and around airport grounds.
- Monitor the arrival, parking, refueling, loading, and departure of all aircraft.
and 3 more
Also called
Operations Coordinator · Flight Operations Coordinator · Flight Follower · Operations Specialist · Airfield Services Officer · Aviation Operations Specialist · Airfield Operations Specialist · Airport Operations Agent
Related jobs
What these numbers mean
The score is the share of this job’s work, weighted by how important and frequent each task is, that AI could do in half the time: tasks an AI model could do alone count in full, tasks that need software built on AI count half.
“AI already used” is the share of the work in tasks where people are recorded using AI today. “As AI tools mature” counts every task AI could halve, with or without extra software.
The percentile compares the score with every job’s, weighted by how many people in the US do each one. Exposure means AI could change how the work is done, not that the job goes away. These are estimates for the typical job, not predictions.
Sources
- O*NET 31.0 Database, U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration
- GPTs are GPTs: Labor market impact potential of LLMs (task labels), Eloundou, Manning, Mishkin & Rock (2023), OpenAI and University of Pennsylvania
- Anthropic Economic Index: labor market impacts (task penetration), Anthropic
- Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025 (national and metropolitan areas), U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics