Hello, Everyone
My Name is Domminick Cohn and my dream is to become an airline pilot, but there is one thing that I would like to know. When you join an airline or in the process of it, do the airlines give you the option to choose the aircraft you want to fly? (Supposing your certified for all of them) Or it depends?
Domminick,
EVERYTHING at the airlines is based on seniority. When you first get HIRED (you don’t join) you will be very junior and will be assigned the most junior aircraft at the company based on the company’s needs. While you may be LICENCED to fly any aircraft, unless you’re very wealthy and spent a considerable amount of time and money purchasing Type Ratings for the airlines entire fleet you will not be CERTIFIED to fly any of them until the airline trains you. As you build seniority you’ll be able to bid on other aircraft but again will have to be trained for them.
Adam
Domminick,
When you are hired by an airline, you will bid on the aircraft you want to fly, based on what the airline has availability on at the time. Suffice it to say though, that at a major you will probably start on a narrow body fleet like the 737 or Airbus 320 as they tend to be the junior airplanes at an airline.
Chris