A new airline pilot, after basic training will start his/her career as a First Officer, under  the supervision of a Training Captain. This will normally be on the Short Haul Fleet of most World Airlines. As the pilots career progresses,  he/she will eventually become a Senior First Officer. The pilot could change to Long Haul flights subject to his seniority. The pilot  may stay on short haul routes (nobody is normally forced to do long haul if they do not want to.) (The challenge of seeing the world and more money does help tho.) A starting aircraft could be ATR  or a jet such as a B757. This depends on what vacancies there are at the time, in what fleet, when the pilot qualifies.

When the pilot  becomes senior enough to be a Captain he/she will do a command course. On taking up the Captain's command, the pilot will normally be returned to the short haul routes as a Captain, and not on the long haul routes. Some airlines do now allow the Senior First Officer to become Captain on the long haul fleet thus just changing seats in the aircraft.

As the Captain becomes more experienced they can apply to become a Training Captain and supervise and train  the new First Officers or new Captains. Eventually the Captain will be known as a Senior Captain. With Seniority the Captain could go back on the Long Haul Fleet again should he wish to do so if he/she was on short haul routes.

Pilots are type rated on aircraft  for example the  A320  B777 (Note 757 or 767  are  similar types ,pilots normally fly both types on the same rating.)

 As a rough guide short haul flights are 5 hours or less. 

The Long Haul aircraft are normally  747, 777 ,Concorde MD11, A330, A340, DC10 and  Tristar 



                   

Index