Airline Rank

[747 forever]

So, do different airlines have different flight crew ranks? I just want to know if anyone has a list of airline pilot rank list such as how many hours does a pilot have to become more senior.
Here is one example from a virtual airline (this is FSX stuff so of course its not real)
Trainee 0 - 29 hours
Second Officer 30 - 75 hours
First Officer 76 - 175 hours
Junior Captain 176 - 27 hours
Captain 271+ hours

[dusk2dawn]

Questions If you are a professional pilot or your work involves professional aviation please use this forum for questions. Enthusiasts, please use the 'Spectators Balcony' forum.

[bfisk]

In reality it is normally based on seniority, assuming internal requirements and government standards are fulfilled. Ie; to be an airline captain you require, amongst other things, at least 1500 hours to qualify for an ATPL licence. However most companies have higher requirements than this to be considered for captaincy, and in most cases seniority list dictate the rest. That means you could have a truckload of experience, but if the company already have enough captains (normally a bit over half the corps), they will not upgrade you until there are vacancies anyway.

The different types of copilots, for those who have it, may be based on number of hours or time of service. Not airlines have these subcategories. However, upon entry into service the pilot would normally do "line training" with experienced captains. This is to prevent an inexperienced copilot to fly with a (relatively) inexperienced captain. Following this period, which could last a few weeks to a few months, you would be "released" into normal line ops with "any" captain.

[Denti]

Even that depends. Supervision or line training is still training. It doesn't really fulfill any unexperienced-roster prevention scheme.

Back when i was fresh out of supervision (around 2 months of line training, other companies do as much as 8 months) i still wasn't allowed to fly with inexperienced captains (less than 1000h on position and type) until i had 500 hours done after line training. It makes rostering a bit more complicated, but increases the overall experience level.

[Manchikeri]

Questions If you are a professional pilot or your work involves professional aviation please use this forum for questions. Enthusiasts, please use the 'Spectators Balcony' forum.

The last time I checked, this was the Spectators Balcony forum, old boy.

[Don't you just love Teutonic officiousness?]

[Dan Winterland]

It may have been moved here from another forum.



As for the original question, there are amny factors which determine rank. Some airlines will only have F/Os and Captains. Some may split the co-pilot's rank into various levels reflecting on their experience, or more usually time in the company. As for upgrading to the left seat, seniority is the usual factor With the better employers, people won't leave and time to command may be in excess of ten years or more. But time to command can be very short in an airline with a lot of throughput or which is expanding rapidly. Plus, a minimum experience level is set and this is never usually less that 3000 hours for narrowbodies and 5000 for widebodies which are levels set by most insurers.

My company has Second officers (one stipe), Junior First Officers (two stripes) and First Officers (three stripes) as co-pilots. The criteria for promotion and better pay is time. But our sister company which operates a lot of long haul routes reserves the rank of SO for the cruise pilots. They only become a JFO on upgrade to the right hand seat proper and a full rating on the aircraft. They also subdivide the FO rank into those who are cruise command qualified and those which aren't. The latter weat 2 and a 1/2 stripes.