How to become a Flight Navigator
Official Chinese title (2022 occupational classification): 飞行领航员
Uses the aircraft's navigation instruments and equipment, keeps track of radio navigation information for the whole flight and gives the calculated navigation data to the pilots and the ground.
Main tasks
- Collecting and checking navigation information, reading notices to airmen, drafting the navigation plan, getting to know the route, airports and flight rules, studying how to handle unusual situations, and bringing navigation tools and personal licences
- Reviewing the flight documents and notices to airmen from the dispatcher, keeping up with the latest changes, checking the crew's information, powering up and checking navigation equipment and reporting to the captain
- Operating navigation equipment by procedure, checking and correcting the track so the aircraft follows the planned route, and keeping the navigation log
- Handling unusual situations as the captain directs
- Alerting the crew when the weather is difficult and guiding the aircraft accurately and safely to where it needs to be
- Reporting how onboard navigation equipment and ground navigation stations performed and handing in flight documents
Ways in
- University: Engineering degrees, Offered by 105 universities in China Related undergraduate subject classes in the Ministry of Education catalogue (2025): Transportation (0818); majors such as Transportation, Traffic Engineering, Marine Navigation, Marine Engineering, Flight Technology, Transportation Equipment and Control Engineering. Matched to the occupation by Peernovo.
- National qualification: Licence to practise: Aviation Personnel Licence. You need this qualification to work in the job. Listed in the national vocational qualifications catalogue (国家职业资格目录, 2021) as Aviation Personnel Licence (航空人员资格), run by Civil Aviation Administration of China. Peernovo links it to this occupation.
AI and this job
- Generative AI can do relatively little of this work, by the ILO's global estimate.
Who does this work
- The census group Aircraft and Ship Technical Personnel holds 0.02% of everyone employed in China; 7% of its workers are women (2020 Census).
- 43.1% are under 35, 46.7% are 35 to 54 and 10.2% are 55 or older. The middle age band is 35 to 39.
- Census figures for the whole mid group (2020 long-form sample), not for this job alone.
Related jobs
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Questions people ask
How do I become a Flight Navigator?
Ways in include: Engineering degrees.
Will AI change the work of a Flight Navigator?
Generative AI can do relatively little of this work, by the ILO's global estimate.
Sources
- National Bureau of Statistics of China: China Population Census Yearbook 2020, long-form tables 4-6 and 4-7 (employed by occupation mid group, sex, age) (2020 Census long form (10% sample)), retrieved 4 October 2026
- International Labour Organization, Generative AI and Jobs: A Refined Global Index of Occupational Exposure (ILO Working Paper 140, Gmyrek et al.) (ILO Working Paper 140, May 2025, Annex Table A1), CC BY 4.0, retrieved 4 October 2026
Sources: Occupational Classification of the People's Republic of China (2022 edition, public consultation draft), Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, State Administration for Market Regulation and National Bureau of Statistics; Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, 2025 enterprise pay survey information; Guangzhou Human Resources and Social Security Bureau, 2025 labour market wage prices; National Bureau of Statistics of China (www.stats.gov.cn), 2020 Population Census yearbook; Ministry of Education, vocational education major profiles (2022 revision) and undergraduate major catalogue (2025); Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, national vocational qualifications catalogue (2021); O*NET interest scores (CC BY 4.0); ILO global generative AI exposure index (CC BY 4.0). Figures processed by Peernovo. English text, translations and the matching of occupations to ISCO-08, majors, degree fields and qualifications by Peernovo.
Descriptions and tasks are Peernovo's own words, written from the facts in the Occupational Classification of the People's Republic of China (2022 edition). Job titles and work types are the classification's own.
Updated 4 October 2026