Alerts and Updates for AAI Junior Executive (Air Traffic Control and Engineering)

The single most important structural fact about this exam is that there is no single exam. Air Traffic Control candidates sit an AAI paper heavy on Physics and Mathematics and then face aptitude and medical filters that have nothing to do with marks; engineering candidates never sit an AAI paper and are ranked on a GATE score obtained months earlier. AAI's own careers pages could not be read directly for this update, so the figures above are as reported by the coaching trackers cited.

Two calendars run in parallel here and they do not line up. The general Junior Executive and Manager cycle closed on 7 September 2026 with no test date published; the Air Traffic Control and GATE-linked engineering cycles sit on their own advertisement numbers and open only when AAI issues one. Dates drawn from coaching trackers are marked as reported and should be confirmed against the advertisement PDF on the AAI careers pages before acting.

The commonest and most expensive mistake is treating AAI Junior Executive as one examination with one syllabus. Candidates chasing Air Traffic Control revise Physics and Mathematics for a paper that exists; candidates chasing Electronics or Civil revise the same material for a paper that does not exist for them, because their selection is a GATE score. A second mistake follows from the first: applying to the current advertisement in the belief that it contains ATC posts, when the reported breakup shows none.

AAI does not run a standing annual Junior Executive examination. It issues numbered advertisements, and each one defines its own posts, its own cut-off date for age and its own selection route. Advertisement 12/2026/CHQ/DR-CBT, open 8 August to 7 September 2026, carried 389 posts and, on the reported breakup, no Air Traffic Control vacancies whatever: Junior Executive places in it were Operations 79, Finance 36, Survey and Cartography 8 and Law 6, with 260 at Manager level. Advertisement 02/2024/CHQ, a different animal altogether, recruited five engineering disciplines on GATE scores with no AAI paper at all. Before planning any preparation, establish which advertisement is live and whether it contains the post being targeted.

The reported Air Traffic Control pattern is 120 questions in 120 minutes with no negative marking, split evenly: Part A of 60 marks covering English, general intelligence and reasoning, numerical aptitude and general knowledge, and Part B of 60 marks on Mathematics and Physics. That even split matters more than it looks. Half the paper is subject content at roughly the level a Physics and Mathematics graduate should find routine, which means the differential between candidates usually opens in Part A rather than Part B. With no negative marking, leaving an answer blank has no defensive value, so the discipline to practise is pace across 120 items, not selective attempting.

Junior Executive Electronics is selected on the GATE EC paper, Electrical on EE, Civil on CE, Information Technology on CS and Architecture on AR, with the merit list derived from the GATE score and application verification as the only stage in between. The planning consequence is unusual: the preparation window for an AAI engineering post closes months before AAI advertises anything, because the score being used was earned in a GATE sitting already past. Anyone serious about this route registers for and sits GATE in the relevant paper regardless of whether an AAI advertisement is open, and keeps the scorecard live for whenever one appears.

The written test is one of several gates and the later ones are not academic. Reported stages after the computer-based test are application verification, a voice test, substance testing, a psychological assessment, a medical examination and background verification. The voice test and medical are genuine eliminators for controller work and cannot be revised for. Alongside this, the appointment carries a reported three-year probation and a surety bond of Rs 7 lakh, at a pay scale reported as Rs 40,000 to Rs 1,40,000 at E-1 level. Candidates should price that bond into the decision before applying rather than after selection.

Across the 2026 advertisement the reported upper age limit is 27 years for Junior Executive and 32 years for Manager, with the usual relaxations of five years for SC and ST, three years for OBC in the non-creamy layer and ten years for PwBD, all reckoned on the cut-off date the advertisement itself fixes. Sources differ on that cut-off date for the 2026 cycle, which is precisely the kind of detail to confirm from the advertisement PDF rather than a tracker. The fee is Rs 1,000 for General, OBC and EWS, with SC, ST, PwBD, women and former AAI apprentices exempt.