Being an airline pilot is one of the greatest jobs in the world. Though it isn’t the end goal for every aviator, working for an airline is a fantastic way to manifest the niche skills one has accumulated as a professional pilot. The job has many obvious perks, and this article will examine some of my favorite aspects of working for an airline.

1

Work/life balance

Work doesn’t come home

The balance between relaxing, enjoying time with friends and family, and being free from work-related responsibilities, and work is perhaps the most important long-term feature of enjoying any job. Many people are surprised when I tell them that the work/life balance that airline pilots can strike is one of the job’s most positive defining features.

It seems that the assumption is that pilots are constantly on the road, living out of suitcases and having circadian rhythms interrupted for the sake of getting the job done. In my experience, this is far from the reality of our modern-day, well-regulated aviation system.

A Delta Airbus A339 in Lagos, Nigera.
Photo: Delta Air Lines

The key aspect of airline pilots’ work/life balance is the ability to leave work “at work,” per se. When a regular line pilot walks off the jet at the end of a trip, they realistically aren’t subject to any work-related responsibilities until the next time they are scheduled to fly a trip or be on reserve.

Pilots can choose to avail themselves of extra work, which comes in the form of an offer from the scheduling department as a phone call, text message, or app notification, but additional work is voluntary. This means that the time between duty belongs to the pilot—we don’t have to watch for emails at odd hours, worry about finishing reports, or even set an alarm to wake up to on days off. It’s pretty darn special.

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This isn’t to say that professional pilots don’t focus on work when they aren’t on duty. For instance, a pilot who knows about an upcoming trip to an airport they haven’t been to will review the procedures and diagrams for it. Likewise, the start of winter (or a trip through cold-weather cities) prompts many pilots to review deicing procedures.

Additionally, recurrent training (which happens every 6-12 months, airline dependent) keeps pilots “in the books” and up-to-date on operating protocols year-round. There are still a few things to do “outside the lines” of defined working hours to stay sharp, but pilots’ additional workload doesn’t intrude on enjoying time off from duty.

2

Time off

More free time than most jobs

In addition to being able to compartmentalize work, many airline pilots enjoy ample amounts of time off. An average schedule for a major airline pilot can feature anywhere from 13-20 days off (or more) in a month. Seniority, the type of flying (long or short-haul), the season, and the airline dictate the actual number of days. Even a reserve who doesn’t know where and if they will work on assigned reserve days can expect a minimum of 12-15 off per calendar month. Considering a conventional job affords 8-10 days off monthly, a junior pilot can expect more free time than most working people.

British_Airways-The_concourse_at_Heathrow_Terminal_5-ref43808

Photo: British Airways

The flip side to the generous amount of days off per month is that work takes crew members away from home for days at a time. Considering this, having a few more off days compared to Monday-Friday workers is a fair trade. However, work days can’t last more than 14ish hours for most airline pilots due to duty time limits, and a minimum of 10 hours (but usually more) exists between the end of a work day and the commencement of the next.

There’s, therefore, a good chunk of time during overnights to explore, eat, socialize, rest, or work on projects or a secondary job. In this way, days spent “working” away from home on trips can still feel like a break if the layover is long enough and in a nice place. There’s actual, uninterrupted time off at home, and spurts of free time during layovers.

3

Dynamic work environment

Something new on each flight

Flying for airlines provides an ever-changing work environment. While standard operating procedures remain unchanged (allowing unacquainted colleagues to work well together), each flight differs. Maintenance issues, cargo and catering dilemmas, weight and balance equations, weather, and ATC restrictions ensure that every flight is distinct. A pilot well acquainted with a route like Denver to Houston or Dallas to Phoenix might refer to an on-time arrival as “business as usual.” Still, the reality is that there are so many things about each flight in particular that make it distinct.

A good example of the uniqueness of every flight is the pilots’ attempt to find a good ride, something every airline intends for its flight crews to focus on. On a given day, the route from Atlanta to Tampa is flown by multiple airlines 20+ times. The routing given by ATC is always the same (unless there’s a considerable amount of weather): BANNG3 departure from Atlanta with the LUCKK transition, then direct to HONID for the MAATY5 arrival in Tampa.

This clearance is as predictable as the sky is blue, but pilots will fly this route at different altitudes and various speeds depending on ride reports from other pilots, what turbulence plots on their flight apps show, and based on the company’s fuel burn indices.

The route from Atlanta to Tampa.

Photo: Jeppesen

On this same “business as usual” flight, any variety of NOTAMs for runway or taxiway closures could be in effect. There might be wind shear advisories for either airport. Perhaps there’s flow control that requires coordination between the dispatcher and ATC during the busy holiday season. The plane might have multiple MELs that affect performance and operations, like an inoperative thrust reverser or a broken APU. Perhaps the flight is an empty ferry flown without flight attendants, so the pilots must perform cabin safety inspections and arm the boarding doors.

All of these could happen during a regularly scheduled trip. Pilots become accustomed to things never being the same, and this adds enough variety to the day-to-day operation such that the job remains interesting and keeps pilots ever-weary of the rules that govern their performance.

4

Team membership

Working with others

One of the more overlooked aspects of working as an airline pilot is that you’re part of a team during every moment at work. On the line, pilots are part of the flight deck crew and members of the flight crew including the flight attendants. In the simulators during training, pilots always work in tandem as well. There’s never a moment that an airline pilot works alone.

British_Airways-British_Airways_Pilots_and_Cabin_Crew-ref180444

Photo: British Airways

Working as a team member is hugely important for airline pilots because it increases safety. Two or more pilots working together can trap errors, identify threats, and back each other up. Working as a part of a team is gratifying. Pilots are trained in standard operating procedures (SOPs) that revolve around teamwork and taking cues from colleagues from the outset of their careers. Working as a team provides daily opportunities to see the dedication to SOPs come to fruition.

Emirates Group Image Pilots

Photo: Emirates

Outside of work, having people to spend time with on overnights away from home can be fun. Crews do not always hang out together during overnights, but pilots (and flight attendants) who gel nicely have the opportunity to be social during layovers.

This can be particularly nice while working holidays. Being away from loved ones during the holidays is a bit of a drag. Still, a good crew can remedy some of the loneliness resulting from working holidays by having dinner together or enjoying the amenities of their layover city. Some crew members prefer solitude on overnights, but for those who like spending time with colleagues, working for the airlines is a great way to spend free time on the road with people you naturally share a lot in common.

5

Stunning views

Unlike any other job

Traveling is an often repeated perk of airline work, and there’s a ton of validity. Being an airline pilot makes people visit places they’d otherwise never (or seldom) get to go with regularity. Every city a pilot visits requires a landing at the airport, and the approach to the landing offers one of the most unique things pilots experience relative to other jobs: the view of places from the front of a plane.

Views from windows can be captivating, but they seldom provide a panorama. Cabin windows are limited in rearward and forward visibility, and it seems like more people than ever keep them closed during takeoff and landing (something that is allowed in the US that isn’t in other places). Conversely, pilots have massive windows allowing for vistas of sunrises, sunsets, incredible cloud formations, the expanses of natural scenery below, and city skylines.

It’s a privilege to view massive cities from low altitudes when approaching their airports. People pay a lot of money for helicopter and other aerial tours around cities, which pilots get to experience all the time. Particularly unique places, in my opinion, are the view of Chicago’s skyline when approaching O’Hare from the east over Lake Michigan, nighttime landings in Los Angeles from the east, downwind-to-final views of O’ahu’s beaches and skyline in Honolulu, and the descent down the east coast of Florida when landing in Fort Lauderdale or Miami on a clear day.

Watching a continent (the west coast of the US) appear underneath a sunrise after flying through an abbreviated night, catching a multi-hour show from the northern lights, and passing over the Grand Canyon is equally special. The view from the front of an airline never gets old.

The view from the front of a plane shortly before landing in Split, Croatia.

Photo: Thomas Roell I Shutterstock


Like anyone else, what a professional pilot values most about their job depends mainly on their outlook. Gratitude, openness to learning, and a joyful disposition are straightforward traits that make things like commuting to work or being junior on a seniority list manageable. In my opinion, working for the airlines is one of (if not the best) jobs that anyone can have due to the flexible and ever-changing nature of the role.

Though pilots might do the same job for decades, the ins and outs of flying change as often as the weather. There’s always an incentive to stay up-to-date with airline policies and federal regulations and remain ready for the next checking event that the training department has in store. The result is a job that grants a relatively large amount of time off, fresh experiences while working, and the ability to completely delineate the line between work and time off. Work-life balance is essential, and it is one of the best benefits of working for the airlines.

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