Can flight crew operate across 2 AOCs?
 

Hello everybody,

Really didn't know which sub-forum this should go, so put it in here as it seemed most appropriate, please forgive me if it's in the wrong place.
The title asks the bulk of the question, can pilots operate across more than one AOC?
For example, can a Ryanair UK pilot operate Ryanair "main" aircraft, Wizz UK on Wizz "main", Easyjet UK on "Alpine", Hifly on Hifly Malta, and so on, you get the point.

I searched it, and found results on EASA Interoperability but nothing set in stone in regards to a yes/no.

Any answers or information appreciated.

Thanks :ok:

In the US, Atlas does it. Their pilots operate under the Atlas and Polar certificates interchangeably. To do it, though, the FCOMs and training had to be merged so they are identical. In the past, Continental did it with Air Micronesia.

As Intruder says, the short answer is yes.

The long answer is, it depends. Most air operators will prohibit their employees from working for a competing company and would require their pilots to obtain permission before going to work for a non-competing company. When approval is given, it comes with some strict rules - at least at my outfit. Also, at least here in Canada, the regulator frowns on pilots having too many type ratings. There is no specific prohibition against having multiple ratings at once, but the unofficial limit is 5 active ratings.

On the whole, the problem with working at multiple companies boils down to flight-duty concerns, although there is some corporate security thrown in. In your example, if I worked for Ryanair, it is likely I could not go work for EasyJet because they compete. However, I'd likely be able to instruct or work at a drop zone. Yet the main problem still comes down to flight-duty. For every one hour I fly at Company B, that is one hour less I can fly for Company A. And that's just flight time. Once you add in duty time, it becomes a bigger pain. I know a couple of pilots who have had a talk with the Chief because they accepted a flight at Company B and that caused a rest issue for the duty at Company A.

Also a practical limitation: You will have to do each company's recurrent training separately, unless they are merged as with Atlas/Polar. To me, even 1 company's worth of recurrent training is too much!

Actually, now that I think about it, this is the reason. Nothing more, nothing less. hahaha

And of course, there is the issue of flight time limitations that have to be spread about those several companies, which can put quite a burden on the planning department. Within one organization that can be done of course, across several ones grows into a major headache. I believe in Europe easyjet did it in a way, as pilots could, and in the case of the european pilots, still can, fly across all their AOCs, from what i've been told. In the past, Air Berlin had a similar program that allowed pilots to operate on several AOCs at the same time.