Airline Pilot

Airline Pilot

A career as an airline pilot is only for individuals who are willing to dedicate a large amount of time and money before they can finally achieve their dream of flying large commercial airlines. Pilots must be willing and able to take responsibility for the safety of the aircraft they are flying, as well as all the passengers and cargo onboard.

This career is for people who have a passion for flying and for traveling all over the world. Airline pilots are responsible for flying passengers and/or cargo on flights for a wide range of purposes, including business, commerce and leisure.
 
The nature of the flight can be either short-haul or long-haul. Most commercial aircraft are operated by two pilots, the captain - or the pilot in command, and the first officer - who assists the pilot out.

In long-haul flights, the captain and first officer continuously rotate their duties so that fatigue can be averted. Long-haul flights with no stopovers often have four airline pilots so that any two can be awake to operate the aircraft at a given time. There are two major career paths that one may follow as an airline pilot.

Pilots who fly short-haul flights may fly the same aircraft several times in one day. Their flying hours are generally fixed and they may wake up and sleep in the same bed on any given day. Other pilots, who fly long-haul flights, normally do not wake up and sleep in the same bed on any given day.
They must get used to spending nights in unfamiliar places, and spending long hours in a cockpit of a large commercial airliner. However, most pilots do not get to choose the routes they fly as these are assigned by airlines depending on their skill and experience levels.

Typical airline pilot duties include making sure the cargo and passengers have been loaded, ensuring the flight instruments are working properly, taxiing the plane to the runway, taking off, maintaining the plane at cruise altitude, making safety and information announcements to passengers, fly the plane to maintain flight level, making an approach to the destination airport, landing, taxiing to the gate, ensuring disembarkation and parking the aircraft.

Their job also includes communicating with air traffic controllers, calculating required fuel levels, checking weather conditions and checking aircraft weight.

The average salary for a commercial airlines pilot in United States is US$60,000. Some pilots receive a starting wage of US$50,000 and after four years reach US$65,000, according to the performance and experiences.

For example, a Boeing 777 captain with 12 years' experience can earn up to about US$300,000 per annum.

There are also many benefits such as annual bonus, company shares, retirement plans and medical benefits offered to these positions.

Remarks: The information and figures provided are intended as a guideline only. For those interested, please contact the respective airline headquarters (AirlinesHQ) for further information.