There are many responsibilities an air traffic controller has when they are working. They have to understand flight patterns, types of aircrafts, weights of aircrafts, the route the plane will take, and many more. One of the responsibilities a controller has is reading a flight strip. So, what exactly are flight strips? Flight strips are pieces of paper that has all the essential information a controller needs to get its aircraft from point A to point B. It ranges from what airline is operating that aircraft, the route the plane is going to take, the weight of the aircraft, and other information. A flight strip is simple to read with the proper training, but it is very important that it is done right. If a mistake is made, that mistake can lead to catastrophic results and in the aviation industry, safety is always the number one priority. The point of the flight strip is to keep track of the aircraft and the directions that were given to that airplane. Controllers have radars and computers to keep track of the flight for you, but we all know technology isn't perfect and it sometimes fails. So, if the radars were to shut down, the controllers can control the plane still, just manually, So, flight strips are essential to a controller and it is a key part of the job.

Source: https://www.faa.gov/air_traffic/publications/ATpubs/ATC/atc0203.html

Above is an example of a flight strip a controller would look at. It's nothing too complicated and after filling them out for a while, it becomes an easy task to do. The first part of the flight strip you should recognize is in the top left corner. If you look closely, you will see that the flight strip says "DAL 542." DAL stands for Delta Airlines and the number 542 represents the flight number. Controllers need to make sure that the plane they're talking to is the right plane so that directions are not confused. Right below, that section it reads "H/B753/A." The "H" stands for Heavy. This indicates to the controller that the aircraft is a heavy airplane. This is significant because we have to consider the weight of the aircraft. They cause wake turbulence behind them and it can cause an accident. "B753" stands for the type of aircraft it is. In this case, it's a Boeing 753. One more key section to point out is section 25. If you look, you will notice that it starts with "FLL" and ends with "PHL". FLL stands for Ft. Lauderdale and PHL stands for Philadelphia. As you can guess, Ft. Lauderdale is the departing airport and Philadelphia is the arriving airport. The information in between is the route the aircraft will take to get to Philadelphia. Usually, the routes on the flight strip are the routes the controllers will use. But, sometimes, a controller may need to change it up a bit depending on certain events. All the other sections a controller may or may not used. It all depends because every day is different.

In the end, a flight strip helps controllers do their job. It tells them airline that is flying in, the type of aircraft it is, and the route they will take to get to where they need to be. It's the job of the controller to make sure they fill in the correct information because once it's passed on to the next controller, it is assumed that the information is correct. Air Traffic Control is still a difficult task, but these flight strips make a controller's task a bit easier.