Difference Between Flight Operation Officer and Flight dispatcher

[Mannu]

well I want to know some info from you regarding FO .. u know in Emirates aviation college there is a course of flight dispatcher with following course outline: UAE Air Law & Federal Aviation Regulations
Meteorology
Navigation
Aircraft
Communications
Air Traffic Control
Emergency and Abnormal Procedures
Practical Dispatching ...
My question is whats difference between Flight Operation Officer and Flight dispatcher reply ASAP

[PavoAfghanistan]

Definitions differs on organization, country and so on.

Normally Flight Operation Officers are responsible for ground handling arrangements, flight watch, movements, arranging fuels in different locations or in your locations only if you will be working in a handler or a local handling agent

Flight Dispatchers normally responsible for flight planning side, sometimes dealing with permits, and all listed above.

it depends on organization's definitions of both job.

Go for Flight Dispatch if you need suggestion.

Mike Barnabas

[PNY]

The ICAO formally calls the position "Flight Operations Officer (FOO)" with a certification requirement. The FAA, which orignally invented the positon and certification that ICAO adopted terms it as "Aircraft Dispatcher (AD)" within their certification which corressponds to all those duties that ICAO requires of a FOO.

Over the years most used term has become "Flight Dispatcher (FD)" and the ICAO requirement to have a certification for this position can be at discretion of an ICAO member nation and many nations just file an exemption to the FOO licensing requirement of ICAO. Other nations mandate the certification requirement.

Further for many years now some countries left it to discretion of it's national carriers.

In Malayasia the air carrriers issued the FOO license but due to strugling educational standards most were ill trained and treated as office boys by the flight crews. A few years ago DCAM took over it's ICAO FOO licensing responsilbilites but many of these histroic FOO licensed by the respective air carriers have found it difficult to pass the new licensing examination.

Singapore has no licensing requirement but leaves it up to the air carrier to provide training and over sight of the FOO and they have an exemption on file with ICAO so that they do not have to license such personnel.

Hope that helps.... good day!

[JechonLine]

i Agree with PNY and MIKE..

FOO in most countries deals with permits and ground handling services (catering/hotels. etc). but some companies makes flight plan too.

for flight dispatchers. they are mainly focus on Flight planning, they deal with weather, charts, notams, and a "must-know" aviation notices. they also talk to crew in flight via two-way radio air to ground (depends on the company). some companies they present flight plan and discuss with crew while they're still on ground.


confusing part in this career is. some countries like singapore and Australia. they don't provide or need a licensed flight dispatcher. the air carrier provides extensive training for them.


i read some aviation history, long before most countries does not have such flight dispatcher course. all were being done through air carriers trainings.


(for experts, pls correct me if im wrong. am not well experienced guy. just another guy struggling to get a FD job too) :)

[LastMinuteChanges]

Flight Dispatchers within the UK are now known as 'Turn Around Coordinators' and are the men (or women) on the ground coordinating between air crew and ground crew to turn around an aircraft once it 'chocks on' at stand.

They tend to either be employed with the ground handling company, such as Servisair or Swissport if servicing a low-cost carrier, or through the airline such as BA or Virgin Atlantic, who are full-service carriers.

Coordination involves organising catering, cleaning, water/waste, fuel, de-icing et cetera, as well as management of the loading and modification of mass and balance figures if necessary.

Old school Flight Dispatchers, such as those previously mentioned positions still exist in smaller numbers in the UK.

[desertopsguy]

Some slightly incorrect info posted here.

The term flight dispatcher in the UK is often used to describe the turn around coordinator position or AKA the 'red cap'. These are the people managing all the various activities on the ground, pax on/off, baggage, fuelling, servicing, load sheet etc...

The term flight dispatcher in the US and some other countries is used to describe the people who plan the flight. They review the weather/notams, choose the route, select the alternates, do the ETOPS calcs if necessary, decide the fuel load, check the status of the aircraft re MEL, maybe they will do a runway analysis, brief the crew, update them in flight and carry out reroutes if needs be. The jobs are not the same, they are not even similar.

FOO - Flight operations officer, this term is more similar to the US flight dispatcher, it is nothing to do with ground handling in most places. It is just the terminology used by ICAO. The key word here is 'flight'; not 'ground'.

If you want to know more or disagree with me then just search on-line for ICAO 7193 D-3 to be set straight.

Agree with PNY too..

D.O.G

[-Andrew-]

So how does on become an FOO? What university degree is required. Atm I will pursue a bachelor degree in business. If I manage to get a job on an airline, what are the chanses of getting this kind of job?