Airline pilot here, I’ve just landed from a 5 day trip where I took my DH and DC because it’s the school hols and why not go and have an adventure? In the last year I’ve taken friends and family to the Caribbean, the Far East, on safari, skiing etc. I’ve been in the industry for nearly 30 years, so am far away from the recruitment and initial years side of things, but I’d like to answer a few of the queries that have come up earlier in the thread.
Firstly, it is expensive to get into and the pay isn’t that great….?? Well, it’s like a lot of things. It takes a lot of effort and costs a lot to train, but as another poster has said, many of the airlines are recruiting straight from flying school atm, there is a definite shortage of newly qualified pilots. However, it is a very cyclical industry, and at other times there has been a glut of fresh pilots and not enough jobs (after 911, Gulf War, etc. you can’t predict these things. You can get good luck or bad luck, I know pilots who’ve been at both ends of this particular spectrum.)
Pay, pick of the route networks, trips and days off, priority on staff travel and other perks, and more, are all related to ‘seniority,’ ie how long you have been in the company. If you don’t like your company, you generally don’t get to take your current T&Cs with you, you start again at the bottom of the seniority list. As a result pilots often stay with one airline for much of their career, and this is the main reason that pilots will protest bitterly (to the point of going on strike) if their company doesn’t treat them well, as we can’t just move companies easily. However, ultimately pay isn’t good, regardless of which company you work for. There will always be companies that pay more, but a long haul captain will easily be able to take home £200k+. A freshly qualified pilot with a brand new jet type rating is more likely to be on around 60-70k.
As well as salary, you generally get pension, staff travel, and private medical insurance (airlines don’t like you unfit to fly but otherwise well to work, they need you back flying asap, a pilot is an expensive commodity!) Maternity benefits are generally lousy though, but getting better. Staff Travel varies from airline to airline, but it’s a bit of a skill just to pick a flight you can get on with your cheap standby ticket! OTOH, you do get used to jump seat travel and being bumped off flights, but you also get used to travelling in Business or First too. I book family holidays at very last minute usually based on where we can get to.
’It is rather boring….’ Seriously? I never tire of looking out of the window at the Grand Canyon, the Alps, the ITCZ over Africa (the giant thunderstorms that occur over the Equator,) Greenland and its icebergs. The northern lights, sunsets and sunrises, full moons, Starlink, strange lights in the sky we can’t identify. Roads across deserts that seem to go to nowhere, volcanoes, the Pyramids, the Amazon or the Congo rainforests, the Petronas Towers lit up at night, with all the little fishing boats lit by green lights off the Malaysian coast. The Palace of Westminster and Winter Wonderland in Hyde Park lit up for Christmas, fireworks at Diwali, the islands of the Maldives picking out the little water bungalows, the Eye of Africa meteor crater, Kilimanjaro, Everest, Mont Blanc, Christ the Redeemer and the Sugar Loaf Mountain in Rio, the Corinth Canal, Niagara Falls, the Manhattan Skyline. All of these and more, you see them all the time and they are spectacular from the air.
Then we have the aircraft and it’s possible defects to find workarounds so we can complete the flight, weather to avoid and negotiate our way around, passenger issues - everything from medical emergencies to ‘far too merry’ holiday makers kicking up trouble. We have to be able to make plans and change them under considerable time pressure, because once a situation starts to roll, you have to see it out to its conclusion without stopping flying the aircraft. We deal with cultures both familiar and strange to us, and are expected to be able to work in the most foreign of situations as though we go there all the time (sometimes we do, sometimes we go somewhere we’ve never been before in our lives.)
We get to explore these destinations we go to, sometimes just for an hour or so, other times for as many as 5 or 6 days. I’ve stayed in some of the most exciting places in the world over the last 3 decades, and had adventures I cannot even begin to describe. This year alone I have slept in a tent in the bush listening to lions roar outside, I’ve scuba dived with sharks, eaten a curry so good it’s spoilt British takeaways forever for me, climbed a famous mountain, and partied on 3 different continents.
Lifestyle…. there is no sugar coating this, it can be tough, especially at the beginning. You are away from home a lot, you work antisocial hours and the airlines run every day of the year, including weekends and bank holiday. You miss school plays, birthdays, Christmas, family occasions, etc. but having just listened to ex-doctor Adam Kaye’s ‘This is Going To Hurt’ on audiobook, we are not the only profession who work these weird hours. As a community we set up little groups and networks to swap trips so you can make special events at home if you need to, and rather quickly many pilots with family go part time to spend more time at home. You can fly short haul and be home every night, but then you miss the adventure of travel and downroute fun. OTOH, you will probably not be being bored, as flying round Europe seems to consist of school holidays madness, or dealing with awful weather in the winter, both of which can be challenging situations. As a very senior part time long haul pilot these days I do 2 trips a month, normally a total of around 8 days, and can pick my destinations. I am just trying to decide whether I like the look of Singapore, Cancun or Mauritius best for my next month’s picks. And the great thing about the job is that once you are at the airport, there is very little you can do outside of channeling this runaway train which is your next flight. You just have to go with it, and cannot be distracted by anything at home. It can be a nice escape this feeling, or a terrible distraction if you’ve got complicate stuff going on.
The conviction some posters seem to have that you have to be a complete aviation geek is not entirely true. I got into flying because I like the sensation of flight and looking at the scenery. I am a map geek, not a plane geek. It takes all sorts to be a pilot, and I fly with some very interesting people. My latest co-pilot I flew with has a lucrative sideline as a famous lookalike, but a lot of the pilots I fly with have successful sidelines or hobbies. I’ve flown with expert sportsmen and women, mountaineers, authors, business men and women, even a diamond dealer. Some of them have already had one exciting career before flying for the airlines - former Red Arrows pilots, doctors, academics, lawyers and more. But there are also a lot of pilots who just want to go to work, do a good job in an interesting profession, and get back to their families. Many of them live overseas somewhere sunny or snowy or just cheaper, and commute on their Staff Travel. Some make their job more interesting by becoming trainers or airline managers.
It’s a tough job to get into, and 6 monthly exams in the simulator and a medical examination annually mean it’s a tough job to keep too. But it is definitely not badly paid or boring! Only someone who had never done it would say that.