What is a flight dispatcher?

Whether a flight can be performed – in operational and technical terms – depends on a number of factors: wind, weather at destination and enroute, navigation aids and equipment, airport facilities, the aircraft`s technical condition and performance, fuel uplift needs and a lot more. The flight dispatcher`s job is to coordinate all these variables to ensure that flight operation is conducted as safely and economically as possible.

Flight dispatchers are the heart of an airline. They are the main liaison to the cockpit crew. He/she is the person authorized by the appropriate authorities or airlines to exercise Operational Control, Flight Planning, and Inflight Assistance.

Especially in Europe the flight dispatcher also executes slot coordination between actual flights and Eurocontrol, i.e. the Network Manager Operations Centre in Brussels/Belgium