From pilots and dispatchers to air traffic controllers, the Alaska labor department projects the need for more than 4,000 workers in the aviation sector over the next few years.
Cari-Ann Ketterling with the Alaska Process Industry Careers Consortium (APICC) and Ravn Alaska’s Chief Pilot, Aaron Rocereta, joined Daybreak Wednesday to talk aviation careers.
“The aviation field as a whole here in Alaska offers about 47,000 jobs,” Ketterling said. “And we’re about eight times more likely than our counterparts in the Lower 48 to take a flight.”
Rocereta says he got his start in aviation in the 10th grade when he volunteered to wash planes at a local flight school.
“From there I got flight lessons at a reduced rate,” he recalled. “I remember it was like driving a car, but 3D. Everything got really interesting from there.”
Watch the video above to hear more about his journey.