A new FlightGlobal survey suggests that commercial airline pilots in the United States are burdened with stress and job dissatisfaction.
I asked 121pilot, our resident pilot at Live and Let’s Fly, if there was any truth to that claim in his view. Below is what he told me.
-Matthew
As I Get Older, Being A Pilot Becomes More Stressful
In years past when I saw airline pilot on top ten most stressful job lists I always wondered why that was. But as I’ve gotten older I can understand it and I’ve certainly begun to feel it. There are many aspects of the job that in my 20’s and 30’s didn’t bother me at all but now that I’m 50 I really do notice.
Commuting DC to New York is the easiest commute in the airline pilot world given the plethora of options. But it’s still commuting and it still saps time and energy. Being married with a home and two young children, the demands on my time are also much greater than they were before these blessings came into my life. So the hours away from home have become all the more difficult. Then add in things like having to day sleep and fly red eye trips that are far more tiring than when I was younger.
There are other stresses. Dealing with the TSA and ATC, both of whom have the capacity to make your day much more difficult without good reason. Being gone over weekends and holidays. Missing events in your kids or family life. All of this does contribute to stress in the job. The variability in schedule quality also hits hard. This fall my schedule, for example, has not been anywhere near as good as a year ago. Last year, I could consistently hold Sundays off but this year I’ve had multiple months of working almost every weekend.
Job Security…And Insecurity
Looking at the survey, I sense that I’m lucky though in another aspect. Clearly people flying in Africa or the Middle East are dealing with another and in some ways more difficult stressor in that their employers truly don’t care about them at all. The pay may be good but you’re out on a limb with those jobs and that lack of security would be a major cause of stress. We are seeing this in Asia now too as multiple Chinese carriers have laid off (without pay) Western pilots and told them that if they can’t get back when recalled, regardless of the reason (like a travel ban from the pilots home country), then their contracts will be terminated.
Being A Pilot Is A Great Job, But Lousy Career
I often tell people that being a pilot is a great job but a lousy career. Truly, I love my job. I love flying and I love being in the left seat of an airliner. I enjoy the opportunities my job provides me and I often revel in the chance to experience the beauty of creation in a way most people don’t. If I won a billion dollars tomorrow in the lottery (which would require me to play LOL) I would not quit my job. I’d do less of it certainly, but I could not quit flying.
But the stressors of the job are part of what make it a lousy career. The seniority system effectively traps you at an airline and means that unlike other career fields, if I want to change employers my experience is essentially worthless. Like far too many pilots, I’ve lived through an airline that shrunk, pushing me from Captain to First Officer and the resulting 40% pay cut. Then the airline file for bankruptcy and shut down, dumping me on to unemployment. Nothing in my life has been as stressful or depressing as that was.
CONCLUSION
So yes being an airline pilot comes with a lot of stress, especially as you get older. Working for a company like Delta or JetBlue where you have job security and a management team that cares about its people certainly helps. But for those on contract jobs over in places like the Middle East where you are simply a body to be discarded at will, the stress would be exponentially higher.
“There are other stresses. Dealing with the TSA and ATC, both of whom have the capacity to make your day much more difficult without good reason.”
I can’t speak for TSA, however us in ATC don’t do anything without a reason, which most of the time is safety related.
I have a hard time seeing good reason when JFK (which is slot controlled) is holding in clear and a million VFR despite being in their ideal 3 runway configuration. Or when you in LA on a ground stop for weather that will be gone hours before you could arrive. Or when I miss my flight home because JFK is chronically unable to get aircraft that land 22R across 22L in a timely fashion. Often departing multiple heavies without crossing anyone.
I certainly get flight safety it’s my life. But when other controllers can’t understand why certain places are so inefficient then it gets hard to say it’s justified.
If you’ve been an airline pilot for more than a year or so, all those stressors are self-induced and avoidable. I live in base…commuting stress non-existent. I choose not to upgrade at the earliest opportunity, so my seniority had always been good. Worked one Christmas (an afternoon report) one Thanksgiving, and a couple of Easters because I forgot when Easter was. Was always around for kids and wife. Yes, I made less (and still make less) than I could, but $300k covers my nut and I have plenty to retire with. Being an airline pilot us great, if you don’t live like a (typical) airline pilot!
Paul,
It’s not as simple as that and you know it. Yes everyone makes certain choices. But not everyone has the freedom you’re talking about often because of events that they could not control.
I flew for several international airlines as an expatriate pilot in command of 3 and 4 engined jets B707, Bae 146, DC-10 and 747-300/400. My total hours are approximately 25,000. It is a very satisfying career being paid very well for doing a hobby. The only stress is during check rides and simulator.
After 12 airlines, 11 bankrupt, I have 4.5 years to go. Lost 95% of pension money I had counted on in bankruptcies and PBGC reductions. Commuted 20 years and that cost me 5 days of my life each month away without compensation. My current company, the biggest, has a management hostile to all employees and only interested in stock manipulation. The complexity of the job has increased exponentially. Pilots are treated as criminals and not even trusted to enter the aircraft unescorted. The FAA has introduced many new navigational procedures that make their job easy and incredibly increase my chance for an error. Redundency that was once there now has interdependent critical process that one digit off can result in a cascade of problems. Company training has been cut to the bone and we had failure rates at 40% for flow thrus. The company issues edicts thru messaging and if you miss one it can mean trouble. The lawyers have injected all the risk into the pilot and just reading ALL the preflight documents would take hours but we are liable for all. The unions cannot get a contract done on time as management holds all the cards and strike or work action is now illegal. Free travel is a thing of the past as flights never have seats enough for the family to travel non rev. I could go on but I am the top of the career ladder. I can only feel for the 85% of the rest who don’t work for a big US carrier. When said and done I would have made more money in a trade and been home with my family on my own bed. These last 4.5 years for me depend upon the company making it and keeping my medical that is at risk every 6 months.
If you have a youngster steer them away from aviation. Only .5% end up at Delta. Most will be at Con Air or some other dead end job. And yes I flew Con Air during a furlough. How depressing it was.
Stress is relative. Commercial airline pilots have unions. The small business owner does not. The small business owner can be bullied by employee theft, bad employees, demanding customers, high credit card fees such as higher fees for people who use credit cards that pay high rewards and points.
Great summary, captain. I’m in my mid 30s and I still want to be a pilot when I grow up.
Thanks for the insights here, my son is hoping to pursue a pilot career and this will be helpful. Is there any way to contact your pilot friend directly to answer questions? I’ve got a couple other leads but the more questions answered the better!
I am a retired corporate pilot as well as a Airframe and powerplant mechanic. I’ve been flying for over 50 years and sure, there have been stressful moments, but overall it was a fun and rewarding career. I would not have changed a thing.
As I came from the old school of flying it was different then. A look at today’s cockpit as compared to what I flew and you will see a world of difference. Today’s cockpit is a much friendlier and better equipped one. Much more information available to the pilot, much easier to understand. So that alone should take away from SOME of the stress.
Now the difference between corporate and airline, a world of difference. Airline your driving a bus, corporate, a limousine.
I did try the airline thing for a very short period of time but didn’t enjoy it so I went back to corporate.
As the pilot and mech I had two jobs and only a few times did I ever feel overwhelmed by the job. I did feel much better knowing who worked on the plane and did what.
I will be the first to admit, flying is not for everyone, but tell that ten year old me that when I took my first lesson and you’d see a kid who knew just what he wanted to do, and did it.
I can’t say enough good about the pilot life. But there are nay sayers out there, I know.
If your dream is to fly, then do it. If you find out the commercial pilot life is not your cup of tea, then just fly for fun.