Hello once again from the flight deck.
Today I’ll be talking about seniority and why it’s so important to your Pilot Career. Right From your very first flying job fresh out of flight school, you are assigned a seniority number as soon as you get hired. Seniority is the major factor that affects what aircraft type you will fly at your Operator and how long it will take to upgrade to Captain. Other factors that will affect your career progression are fleet size of that specific ‘type’ at your Operator, level of overall fleet diversity of your operator (The different ‘types’ of aircrafts at your Operator) and overall fleet size and age of your operator.
Normally, privileges, in terms of captain upgrades, type upgrades, compensation, etc., are assigned in order of seniority at the company. Conversely, layoffs and base reductions will happen in order of reverse seniority. i.e. last in, first out.
This seems par for the course in any profession. However, in aviation, seniority comes with a twist. There is no horizontal mobility of Pilot Seniority. It doesn’t carry over from one company to another. You could work for Airline A for 20 years, and then, as soon as you decide to move to Airline B, you must start all over again from the bottom.
What does this mean for everyday life?
- Having to work weekends and holidays like Christmas.
- Starting at the bottom of the PayScale
- Having entry-level benefits (vacation, sick leave, etc.)
- Having no control over your schedule (where you fly or when you fly)
This is why, often, pilot contract negotiations are heated affairs. The pilots with mid-to-high seniority at an operator ( this is more prevalent at the larger operators; think Lufthansa or KLM.) perceive themselves as ‘stuck’ in their positions.
For context, it takes upwards of 10 years to get to a decent level of seniority where you have mid-modicum of control over your schedule and you’re getting paid enough to support a family without having to pick up extra shifts. Contract negotiations are the only opportunity for Pilots to improve their working conditions in the absence of horizontal mobility in the industry.
As with everything in life, there are of course exceptions to the rule. Newer airlines may let you jump seniority to get hired into the captain seat while they grow their pilot list (assuming you meet all the requirements). The downside to that sort of move is that you are gambling on the success of that new Operator, using the already accumulated years of seniority at your old operator.
What does this mean for you starting off in Aviation?
It means, you need to enter the industry with a general idea of where you would like to go with your career. Familiarize yourself with the experience requirements of the various positions that will get you into that Operator. Apply for each successive position as soon as you are comfortable in your current one and have met the experience criteria for the next one.
You want to get into the left seat of your chosen career destination in the shortest possible time. Keep in mind that retirement age is 65, there’s usually one round of layoffs per decade in aviation and it may take 15-20 years to get to the top of the Captain Pay Scale at an Operator.
To summarize, there’s a popular phrase that encapsulates an aviation career; “Hurry up and wait”.
Are you reading this and not sure about how to get your aviation career started? Book a tour of your local flying club or shoot me a message somewhere online!
Keep the blue side up!