FO to Captain

Airline Pilot Questions & Answers
1

Hey!!
In the airlines is there certain standards you need to upgrade from FO to Captain or do they just give you a promotion whenever they feel like it’s time? For example let’s say your a Envoy FO and it’s your first year. How long would it take you to upgrade to Captain status in Envoy?

Thanks, Androu

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Androu,

Once again the answer is SENIORITY. When you upgrade is purely a factor of your seniority. Just like bidding for schedules, bases and airplanes, you will bid for Capt slots. When your seniority can hold it AND there’s a vacant slot you’ll have the opportunity to upgrade. How long it takes can and does vary based on many factors which are beyond your control. As I said there needs to be an available Capt slot. That can come due to expansion or pilots leaving for the Majors. When there’s alot of movement in the industry upgrades can come in 2yrs or less. When things slow down they can take longer.

As I said once your seniority can hold an available slot you’ll be given the opportunity to upgrade. They don’t just hand you the 4 stripes. You must successfully complete upgrade training. While most people do it’s not a given nor something to take for granted.

Adam

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Androu,

As Adam said, seniority rules the day on when you can upgrade to captain. However, a pilot upgrading to Captain has to go through a full training course and meet the FAA standards.

There are some minimums for a pilot to be eligible to upgrade. I believe at United it is 3,000 total hours and 1,000 hours of airline flight time. The vast majority of pilots at United meet this when they are hired, there are some regionals that have the same requirement and sometimes new prospective captains can end up waiting a bit to finish building out those hours before they upgrade.

Chris

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Androu,
Typically most upgrades have about 1000 hours 121 time by the time they make captain. It’s all about seniority and whether you can hold it. Now that there’s a ton of turnover with captains getting pulled to the majors it will be interesting to see how that effects upgrades.
-Hannah

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