It’s every pilot’s goal to earn their ”four stripes” and become a captain, and that’s currently easier than ever before to secure. Yet despite the much better pay, some airlines can’t actually convince enough people to take the upgrade from first officer to captain. What’s going on here?
Continue reading: Airline Pilots Don’t Want To Be Promoted To Captain, And It’s A Problem
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
Good article Ben. From my view of the world (Narrowbody Captain at a large US airline), this situation is only going to get worse. This is not just an airline industry problem, it’s societal. I could pinpoint a few root causes but overall, more and more people are choosing quality of life over pay/potential burnout.
At the airlines, what’s going to make this situation even worse is the demise of the regionals. More and more mainline airplanes are flying into these smaller cities that used to be “RJ only”. This will cause the overall schedules of the junior pilots flying into these cities to deteriorate. That means more legs per day and more hours on duty. Rather than deal with all of that just to be “the Captain”, pilots are choosing to just fly to LHR or NRT once a day and be done with it. I can’t say that I blame them.
Being that the contractual cycles are slowly getting resolved, one of the few solutions I see are side “LOA’s” that potentially increase the benefit or schedule quality for narrowbody (A-220, 320, 737, 717) pilots. That may or may not be possible depending on the company and union representation. Pilots need to be further incentivized to take the upgrade which 30 year ago was completely unheard of.
This will be interesting to watch unfold but some airlines will not have pilots, nor Captains to fly their brand new airplanes.
Out of curiosity, why do the United Pilots pay include the A380? (If the argument is that it exists Incase United ends up purchasing an A380, why isn't the A330 included?)
Captain for a decade, retire when you're 40. Sounds like a great plan..
It's so sad to see all the people in the US still working in their 60s. Have a look at any OPM heavy flight, half the elites are in their 50s and 60s still flying for work. So sad.
Thanks for the great comment. Question - so if a pilot is a FO on say a 777 or 350, and wants to become a captain, the FO would possibly start out as a Captain on a 737 or A320 family, flying short domestic hops?
I guess I'm one of those lazy FO's that doesn't want to upgrade. Fly right seat on highly productive long haul trips. Allows me plenty of open days to pick up an extra trip. Still work fewer days a month than domestic captain, make nearly the same amount of $. I guess it doesn't sounds as glamorous at cocktail parties saying you're simply a co-pilot, but then again I have the weekend off to go to said parties, instead of a 12 hour layover in Akron/Flint/Little Rock.
The book by the "Youngest Captain at United" and his daring decision to get a taxi cab instead of waiting for the hotel van was quite the thriller!
Some love their work. Do you think all the upper management in major companies are not retiring because they can’t afford to?
"It’s good to live to work, rather than work to live."
Minor point but I think you switched the order of these.
Actually I take that back, I see what you're saying. Ignore my comment.
Interesting article!
A previous commented posted herein raises a good point; i.e. " I could pinpoint a few root causes but overall, more and more people are choosing quality of life over pay/potential burnout.." I would simply point out, this is the same dilemma facing the current shortage of Air Traffic Controllers, who must staff facilities 24/7/365, with similar responsibilities and more stress than a airline pilot.
You've got some great points... a friend of mine went to Delta recently from a regional. They're on the 717. They laugh that basically it's like being at the regional again... same cities, same hotels, high number of legs.
Another friend is a Captain at a US major on the A320/321. He has pretty good seniority for his airline (15 years). He bids reserve every month, and is usually the most senior person on reserve. He never has airport sit. He's always on a 24 hour call-out and they have a commute clause. Frequently he barely makes his 3 landings in 90 days, and sits at home managing the golf course he bought and collects minimum guarantee from the airline.
It’s because of life on reserve and the cost/benefit…. Even non union airlines have the same hierarchy, AND DONT CALL ME SHIRLEY!
Same same, why upgrade when I can make the same amount of money on nicer trips, drop/swap/pickup premium whenever I like. I’ve been left seat before, I do not have a fragile ego pushing me to upgrade for the sake of being in charge. I don’t let my seat or my equipment define me…. Having a good work/life/paycheck balance is what I care about, and senior FO is the sweet spot!
Living to work sounds like a depressing situation anyone would want to put themselves in.
OCTin PHL it depends. In the US, everything a pilot does is based on seniority. The fleet/seat you fly, your base, the days off you get, your vacation, everything is all based on overall seniority and more specifically, your seniority on that airplane/base.
These days, at US major carriers, FO in the 777/787/767/350 can go junior. At some airlines, these seats go to brand new hires.
When a pilot is considering upgrading to Captain, they have to consider what their relative seniority would be on that fleet. All a pilot needs to do is look at someone in their seniority range and see what type of schedules they hold. A wide body FO might fly 4 international trips in a month for only 8 legs total and up to 16/17 days off. When a pilot upgrades and is extremely junior on the 737, A320, A220 they might fly 8 legs in one 3 or 4 day trip. Then they might have to do that 4 to 5 times a month for only 11/12 days off.
Just because you swap airplanes it doesn’t mean that you’ll be any more or less senior. It all depends on the airline, base and mission.
The bottom line is more and more pilots are deciding that quality of life a widebody provides is more desirable than being a captain which generally would entail working and being away from home more. All of that for not that much more money. It’s a very fair assessment.
Times have changed. Upgrading to captain doesn’t have the same grandeur to a pilot as it once did. This isn’t the 1950s anymore. There was a time where the captain was the king of the aircraft. He did all of the flying of the aircraft while the FO sat on his hands and did whatever was asked of him. The captain made all of the decisions and nobody questioned him. He was THE pilot… Everyone else were just his helper.
Over time it was realized that this mindset was a very poor way to run a cockpit. As crew resource management evolved, the captain’s role has become that of more of a facilitator. While the captain is still, and always will be, the pilot in command and the final authority of the aircraft, the job has changed. The captain doesn’t “make” the decisions, he mediates all people and resources available to come to a mutual decision. However, he does retain the authority to override if necessary.
The captain and the first officer are both now equally trained and qualified and both hold pilot in command type ratings in their respective aircraft. Both switch off who actually flies the aircraft each leg. Even during emergency situations, the first officer may very well be the one flying the aircraft while the captain runs checklists and troubleshoots.
First officers no longer feel the need or desire to upgrade to get out from underneath someone else’s thumb. Many don’t see the benefit of giving up their great seniority in the right seat in order to go to the left seat for a pay raise (when they’re already making great money) and have to deal with the addition of supervisory annoyances.
It’s also worth noting that it’s not that many first officers NEVER plan to upgrade, they’d just rather wait until they have better seniority in the left seat. Company seniority is company seniority and that doesn’t change with seat position. A pilot’s seniority as captain is dependent on company seniority, not when they started in the left seat. So if pilot A and pilot B are both first officers and pilot A is senior to pilot B, it’s possible that pilot B may choose to upgrade as soon as possible while pilot A chooses to stay in the right seat. However, if pilot A chooses to upgrade a few years later, they will still be more senior in the left seat to the more junior pilot B who upgraded a few years earlier. This gives pilot A more control over their schedule and all the benefits that comes with seniority even though they have been a captain for less time than pilot B.
After reading this I still don't understand why there is a captain shortage. The reason seems to be that captain jobs are less flexible than first officer jobs. But why is that? As you point out, the actual work is basically the same. What am I missing here?
Seniority? New captains start at the bottom, I assume. Senior FO’s can fly more desirable flights than junior captains.
Seniority. More specific: RELATIVE seniority for the seat you're flying now vs the Captain seat I would could get and the working conditions of that seat.
Let's say I started flying for Lucky Air 15 years ago. I stated out on the 737 as FO, flying several short hops a day. As years went by, I upgraded to 757 FO then 787 FO.
I've been a 787 FO for 6 years now and as FO have become fairly senior. That relative senirity among 787 FO's also means I was able to transfer from being bast in Gotham to being based in Pleasantville. I love it so much, that I moved my family to Pleasantville. I have no problem bidding the Pleasantville to Hawaii flights.
One reason I have such good 787 FO seniority is that most of my peers ahead of me accepted Captain positions.
My seniority is such that I can also hold 737 Captain. But do you remember all those peers with higher seniority than me and upgraded before me ? I'd be below them. My base would change back to Gotham (I'm not going to live there again, so I'll have to start commuting). And forget my job being flying long hauls to Hawaii 3 times a month. I'll be back to doing multiple short hauls in/out of the Gotham hub .... the same dreaded trips I was doing years ago when I hired on.
So I'm gonna pass on that upgrade. Hopefully, maybe my last few years before retirement, my actual seniority number will be high enough that I can finally score 787 Captain based out of Pleasantville holding Hawaii trips .... then I will upgrade.
Captain jobs per se aren't 'less flexible' as you say. It's the routes/base that a 737 assigned vs the 787 that (for me personally) are less desirable.
This seems a little weird and I can't wrap my head around it. I get that senior FOs don't want to become junior captains. They'd rather stay senior FOs until their seniority allows them to hop directly to being senior captains. Okay, but then why wouldn't airlines allow junior FOs to become junior captains? The way I see it, for every junior captain dealing with a crappy schedule and lifestyle, there's a first officer right next to him dealing with the same who'd love to become captain and least get paid more for doing it. So why the shortage?
IOW, this should naturally balance itself out: if the extra pay is not enough to entice senior FOs to become junior captains, the seniority system itself will slowly sort this out as more junior FOs take up those junior captain roles that the senior FOs are passing on. At some point, the seniority "premium" you have to pay to get the same routes you could as an FO goes down, until senior FOs can basically lateral themselves into similar captains jobs. And if these days, an FO is just as experienced, trained, and qualified to handle the plane in both routine and emergency operations, then it won't come at the expense of safety or reliability.
So am I missing something here? If senior FOs are passing on these jobs, why aren't junior FOs snapping them up? Hoping someone in the industry can help me understand what the problem is.
If you're a senior first officer with control over your schedule, if you move to captain, you become a junior captain - back to the bottom of the rungs in terms of seniority and ability to set your schedule and lifestyle. For many, especially closer to retirement, that exchange just isn't worth it, even for more cash.
Junior FOs aren't taking the upgrades because they'd face being junior Captains for a *long* time. As more senior pilots do take the upgrades, they'll slot in above those ambitious kids, leaving them on reserve for a couple of decades.
That timing doesn't sound so great to me (or probably many parents). I'd much rather be able to spend time with my daughter now than be able to retire young, after she's already come to resent my absence.
Great explanations like this, steve64, is why I read the OMAAT comments. Thank you!
Yay! This gives me hope. I am going to start reading into programs this week, and hopefully picking a flight school by end of the month to get to be a Commercial Pilot. I obviously want the Captain title, so I hope this is still possible for me once I get into the industry. My cushy WFH job that allows me to watch a lot of YouTube and Hulu is nice, and so is the pay, but I want those travel benefits.
Wow, Steve64, thanks for sharing the full background! Really learned from your post. Thank you!
What is the point AAPA if contract negotiations result in this first world problem? Because both seats are extremely well compensated, "we feel for you" says no one.
Welcome to union utopia, where seniority, not merit, is all that matters. You voted for this, pilots. Enjoy.
It's like this every workplace in Japan lmao, no wonder their population is failing
There is an even bigger issue at the regionals where there is a LACK of qualified first officers to upgrade. This is why passing age 67 is important. We just don't have them.
People also upgraded for the pay bump as First Officers (especially at regionals) made very little. Now that's not true. A first officer makes quite a nice living.
Lucky you are correct about long haul quality of life for days off. 100% wrong about fun . You fly to Singapore then fly back 24 hours later. After a 17 hour flight would you have fun if you had to do it all again tomorrow ? Fun is the Carribbean or Hawaii where to can fly 5 hours and have 24 hours off with no or less time changes. Long haul flying is about the days off. Cargo pilots may have more fun as they stay far longer in foreign lands.
Ahem, they wouldn't have a shortage of captains if they didn't drive them out with their mandatory Covid-19 Vaccination policy!
It’s important to note how many hours per month a pilot is being paid. 70-75 hours per month rather than a 40 hour work week most assume.
Well at AA they had a move up or get fired system when I first got hired. Once a guy below you upgraded to Captain your clock started and you had to upgrade. Many pilots couldn’t make the upgrade going from wide body “food” boy to 727 Captain and were dismissed from the company. That eventually was thrown out in a later contract forcing this problem they have today. Today all the aircraft at AA are all glass cockpits pretty much, so upgrading to CA wouldn’t be that difficult especially with the 727 gone which the company pretty much expected you to be able to build the plane. Only trouble now is the long haul pilots not being used to flying as many legs and seeing more than 2 or 3 different cities to land in.
This is wrong. Many First Officers earn more than Captains. They take home more pay. Maybe less efficiently technically, but that is a subjective thing.
ORD just want to call attention on this table, since Mr. Munoz UA or any US airline was forbidden to acquire A380.
I totally agree with you and if I had the chance I’ll be doing the same thing.
Dan77W are you ex EY in AUH by chance?
I’m sorry but you are wrong, you are not looking right at the numbers… You should compare a 12 years old f/o with a 1 year old captain, and you’ll see that the money difference in very small… it’s just not enough to go back to short haul…
This is probably only true in the US...
I am 47 with 13000+ hrs total flying time (4000 PIC on ATR and over 7000 on jet) and would love to be captain, but I work for an Airline that does not upgrade many of their FO's...
There is no airline that will offer me a direct command position that I know of... Maybe you can help them change their mind?