Air traffic control training: FAA Academy, AT-CTI schools and costs

A new FAA controller who has never controlled live traffic trains in two main stages: the FAA Academy in Oklahoma City (bypassed by Enhanced AT-CTI graduates who hold the FAA endorsement and are hired) and then the facility where they are placed, until they certify as a Certified Professional Controller (CPC). Controllers hired under the experienced-controller notice train at their assigned facility, which that notice says may include some FAA Academy courses. What changes from one person to the next is the door you come in by. This guide sets out the three doors we read in the FAA’s pages, what the Academy teaches and for how long in the FAA’s own training order, the colleges on the FAA’s AT-CTI list with what the Enhanced ones charge on their own pages, and what facility training looks like up to CPC.

ProSyllabus is an independent study site, not part of the FAA, the US Department of Transportation, Pearson VUE or any school named here. The rules, hours and prices below are taken from the pages named beside them and listed under Sources, each read on 15 November 2026; our own comments are marked as ours. The free practice-sample boxes on this page are our own independent practice, not the ATSA, and not endorsed by the FAA. Eligibility (age, citizenship, medical) and pay are in our requirements and hiring guide; the aptitude test is in the ATSA guide.

FAA pages and the DOT/FAA AT-CTI map, read 15 November 2026.

The FAA’s pages describe three ways into controller training for people who have never controlled live traffic (the second is a category within the first), plus a separate notice for people who have. The table puts them next to each other. Every entry-level route needs the ATSA, medical clearance and a background check; the experienced-controller notice names no ATSA.

The FAA’s hiring page describes step four as “Intensive training at the FAA Academy in Oklahoma City” lasting several months, paid, with hands-on simulation. The April 2026 announcement adds that you are on a temporary appointment while there and “must successfully complete the program”, and that you learn “the fundamentals of air traffic control, including aircraft operations, the U.S. airspace system and the aviation industry, through classroom instruction and hands-on workshop exercises.” The same announcement’s benefits note speaks of “several weeks of paid training at the FAA Academy”, while the FAA pages say several months; none of them gives a fixed length. It also says selected candidates are placed in either the En Route or the Terminal (including TRACON) track, “based upon completed clearances and the next available Academy class date.”

The detail sits in FAA Order JO 3120.4S, the training order the FAA’s qualifications page links. It lists each course with its location and length. These are the entry courses for new trainees in the two tracks:

Two things follow from the order, and the reading is ours. First, the En Route track’s graded course is the longest single block, and the order bars retakes in both En Route entry courses (“Retakes are not permitted” for the Basics final exam; “Retakes are not allowed” for the qualification course’s evaluations). Second, the 70% marks are the order’s own pass lines; the announcement adds that people who do not complete Academy training “will be separated from employment”. Neither page gives a pass rate, so we do not print one.

The FAA Academy’s new-hire page adds the practical side: all air traffic courses begin at 0700 on the first day, instructors then assign shifts, you “may be required to work night shift” during Academy training, and class is dismissed for recognized federal holidays. The page says the Academy cannot endorse or arrange roommate situations, and that an onsite childcare centre takes children subject to availability.

Trainees hired through an announcement are paid employees while at the Academy. The FAA hiring and NYC pages state the starting rate during Academy training as $22.61 an hour, with health benefits; the NYC page adds food and housing allowances, and the hiring page “full health and housing benefits”; the April 2026 announcement listed the salary as $48,251 a year, including locality pay that applies while attending the Academy; our requirements guide has the pay detail and where FAA pages differ. What the Academy’s own new-hire page says about money while you are there (separately, the April 2026 announcement says some graduates “may be eligible for a one-time incentive up to $20,000”):

Some costs fall on you before the Academy, and some Academy costs are paid first and reimbursed later (above). The April 2026 announcement says travel to and from ATSA testing locations is paid by the applicant, and for the Enhanced AT-CTI route the 2025–26 notice put test administration costs and travel on the applicant too. An AT-CTI degree is college tuition, priced by each school (the table further down).

The FAA describes the Air Traffic Collegiate Training Initiative (AT-CTI) as “a non-funded partnership” between selected colleges and the FAA, whose graduates hold aviation degrees with air traffic courses. It says plainly that “there is no guarantee of employment”. There are two levels:

Two practical notes, the second ours. The April 2026 trainee announcement placed CTI graduates with an official endorsement letter in Pool 1, and FAA’s applicant checklist asks for that letter on official CTI school letterhead, signed by the school’s point of contact (POC). And because an AT-CTI degree guarantees no job and does not remove the ATSA requirement, many applicants will want to see where they stand on the aptitude side before committing to years of tuition.

The FAA’s Enhanced AT-CTI page embeds a map of “all our approved Standard and Enhanced AT-CTI partner institutions”. Read on 15 November 2026, its school list held 39 entries, 13 marked Enhanced, in 23 states and Puerto Rico. The names below follow the map’s list, except that its “FL Campus” and “AZ Campus” are shown as Daytona Beach and Prescott (with Embry-Riddle hyphenated throughout), one misspelling (“Uinversity”) is corrected and the Los Rios district name is left off Sacramento City College; the state column is ours, taken from each named campus’s location, and it matches the map’s 24-entry state list. The map itself is here.

These are the Enhanced schools’ published 2026–27 rates, each as listed on the school’s own tuition page on 15 November 2026 (12 of the 13; no UND tuition figure was readable in the copy we saved). They are published tuition rates or tuition-and-fee totals, as each row says, not a price for the air traffic programme: aviation programmes can carry their own lab or course fees, living costs such as housing are not included, and residency changes most figures. Our suggestion: use them to compare orders of magnitude, then ask the programme for its full cost.

School pages used: Aims Community College · Angelo State University · Embry-Riddle, Daytona Beach · Embry-Riddle, Prescott · Middle Georgia State, Eastman · Nashua Community College · Sacramento City College · Shenandoah University · SUNY Schenectady · Tulsa Community College · University of North Dakota · University of Oklahoma · Vaughn College.

The figures come in different units (per credit, per semester, per year); our suggestion is to compare like with like. For example, among per-credit rates for in-state or resident students, Sacramento City College lists $46 a unit and Nashua $238 a credit; among yearly tuition, Embry-Riddle lists $45,888 at both campuses. Whatever the school, the FAA requirements at the end of the route (the ATSA, medical and security) are the same.

Graduates move to a facility. The April 2026 announcement says you choose your first facility from “a list of locations with the greatest staffing needs”, that applicants “must be willing to work at any FAA facility”, and that declining to choose “will result in termination”. From there the FAA pages describe the same stages in different words:

The pages do not agree on the length and do not explain why their ranges differ (the announcement says it depends “on the facility size, level, and complexity”): the hiring page (updated 21 April 2026) and the NYC page (8 August 2025) say 1 to 3 years, while the qualifications page (27 February 2025) and the April 2026 announcement say 2 to 3. Our suggestion is to plan on 2 to 3 years.

For trainees and AT-CTI graduates, the April 2026 trainee announcement and the 2025–26 E-CTI notice both required a best or well-qualified ATSA result to move forward (the experienced-controller notice names no ATSA). Result names differ by page: the April 2026 announcement says “Best” or “Well-Qualified”, the E-CTI notice “best and well qualified results”, the FAA hiring page “Well-Qualified required”, and the FAA’s NYC page (August 2025) names the categories Failed, Qualified and Well-Qualified and says the FAA selects only from Well-Qualified. The FAA describes the ATSA as an aptitude test, it says it endorses no practice test, and our ATSA guide covers what it is and how results work. If you want to practise before your test date, ProSyllabus sells an independent practice test: our own exercises for four of the skills Pearson VUE names (decision-making, spatial awareness, multitasking and working memory). It is not the ATSA and predicts no result; Pearson VUE’s page says the FAA does not endorse any practice test, and ours has no endorsement from the FAA or Pearson VUE. The free sample below is four questions.