Work days for the average pilot

Okay, this is relatively broad question to have answered:

What would you say are the typical work days for most Airline Pilots? Do most of you fly on weekends only and have most of the week days off or does it really depend on a lot of different factors?

Thomas,

It really depends on so many things, such as seniority, aircraft type and your personal desires. Generally I work four to six days in a row, followed by three to four days off. FAA limits generally prohibit any more than six straight days of work. When I was junior it was hard to get weekends and holidays off, now that I am senior it is relatively easy.

To get a better idea of our schedules take a look at the “Schedules” section, it will really help paint an accurate picture os what our schedules are.

Chris

Thomas,

Since all airlines fly 7 days a week it’s pretty safe to say there are pilots flying 7 days a week. There really is no such thing as a typical day for an airline pilot. When I was at ExpressJet we had 1,2,3 and 4 day trips with anywhere from 1-6 flights per day. I’m at Hawaiian now and again there are 1,2,3,4 and 5 day trips with as many as 9 flights in a day. I have friends at Atlas and they can be on the road for up to 17 days flying around the world. I could go on but hopefully you get the idea.

What you get depends on the airline, the airplane, the base and your seniority. Typical is not a word we use often.

Adam