Skyhawk 172/Cutlass 172
Air Traffic Control Fully Certified
Air Traffic Control Time Certified In Pos 1 (yrs) 3.0
Distraction; Situational Awareness; Communication Breakdown; Confusion
ATC Issue All Types; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy
Air Traffic Control Issued Advisory / Alert
Aircraft; Company Policy
Another example of similar sounding call signs during a very busy time period with multiple VFR aircraft calling inbound. It took a few minutes to recognize the similar sounding call signs and one of the pilots was a student that I was providing additional care with. Fortunately nothing safety related happened during this session but it worries me to think that I could have turned [Aircraft] a direction for traffic and the other aircraft could have turned into traffic with the similar sounding call sign. We are expecting the similar sounding call signs and it still takes time to be able to process and recognize the situation when you have lots of other high priorities. Is there a way to waive the fee for a major flight school or assign an air taxi call sign? If the flight schools here had a call sign that had unique and different numbers then we wouldn't have such a big problem here. Similar sounding call signs are going to continue to be a problem here at our busy airport but this is a predictable problem that is preventable.
Tower Controller reported similar sounding call signs from a local flight school routinely cause confusion and increase workload.