The World of Pilot Schedules

Schedules impact pilot performance and the safety of passengers and crew, as well as their health. 

If you’re a fan of consistent schedules, being a commercial  airline pilot is probably not the job for you. Flight crew schedules are a complex integration of airline priorities and legal requirements that result in changing schedules for pilots on a monthly basis. They’re complex at best due to a combination of external factors and internal regulations, including safety rules, variable flight demands, crew limitations, and the need to balance airline operational needs with pilot preferences. The system must account for strict flight and duty time limits designed to prevent fatigue, yet must also remain flexible to handle unpredictable events like weather or maintenance issues. To put it simply, at US airlines they’re incredibly intricate and very complex.

Pilots are limited to prescribed duty times for safety, based on crew size and flight operation. 

The foremost consideration for airline schedulers is ensuring pilots are operating legally. In the United States, Part 117 of section 14 of the Code of Federal Regulations (referred to simply as Part 117) contains the regulations for airline pilots' flight duty limitations and was instituted to ensure adequate rest. As a general overview, US regulations limit airline pilots to 36 flight hours in a week, 100 hours in 28 days, and 1000 hours in a year. There are additional considerations that are made on a daily basis as well. The amount of hours a pilot can work in a single duty period are dictated by how many flights the pilot is working and when the pilot’s duty time commences. Suffice it to say that working more flights and starting earlier reduces the allowable number of hours a pilot can work in any one day. This is aimed at mitigating fatigue  and thus enhancing safety.

Airline route planing is a dynamic puzzle solved by complex algorithms to optimize carrier profitability.

Every airline schedules their pilots differently. Scheduling, and many of the rules associated with it, is highly dependent on the contract existing between the carrier and its pilots. Airlines in the United States cannot change any of the requirements set forth in Part 117, but they are able to add further “quality of life protections,"which are usually negotiated by the pilot unions. Examples of such conditions might include extended rest when traversing multiple time zones, the elimination of airport standby reserve shifts, or a minimum amount of days off per month. In order to build out schedules for their pilots, airline schedulers consider the aforementioned criteria as well as the route networks to be flown. From this data, a monthly schedule is generated that contains “lines” of flying. A line is a single pilot’s month worth of work that shows what flights they will operate, what days they will fly, where they will have layovers, and which days they will have off. Hundreds of lines are created each month for every aircraft an airline flies. Lines are also broken down into captain and first officer positions. 

Seniority is used as a currency with more senior pilots getting their first choice of desirable "lines."

Once all the lines for the following month have been generated, they’re presented to pilots as a “bid packet.” In the past, bid packets were physical print-outs of the next month’s available lines, but they are now available online. The bid packet shows the available lines and also breaks down which hotels the pilots will be staying at, how much time will be spent away from base for each line, and how much flying each line is planned to contain (this is called “block time”). Pilots then typically use software to help filter their priorities, such as maximum days off, weekends off, maximum block time and particular layovers. Every airline has a window for pilots to place their bid preferences for the following month. When the window closes, algorithmic computer programs sort preferences and award the lines to pilots based on seniority order. The more time spent with the airline, the better the pilot’s chances of being awarded the scheduled line most desired. Since only the most senior pilots receive their first choice of schedule, pilots place bids for many lines for the coming month to ensure they get something close to what they want. 

Pilot training classes are intense and structured covering rigorous and challenging subject matter.

Pilots can trade trips or drop trips after bid awards have completed. Every airline has different rules, but in general, pilots can trade or drop trips that are contained within the monthly line they hold. Pilots are also able to pick up extra flying if it’s available. However, this extra flying must always adhere to their contract and Part 117. Another scheduling outcome, particularly for new-hire pilots, is getting a reserve schedule. Reserve pilots don’t generally know when they’ll fly with certainty, but they will know which days they’l be on call to cover a trip that doesn’t yet have a pilot assigned. Can pilots can receive the same schedule every month? That depends upon their seniority and the consistency of the airline’s flying schedule. Senior pilots with a legacy carrier may bid for the same long-haul schedule every month and receive a nearly identical line as a result. This isn’t true for many other airline pilots. Another variable is a pilot’s seniority within their particular cohort, the group of pilots who started their training or joined the airline around the same time, often based upon their graduation year or hire date.  

Pilots may upgrade aircraft types through formal training and checkouts requiring new Type Ratings.

A pilot might be a very senior First Officer on an Airbus A220 with the ability to “hold” any line for which they bid. If they’re qualified and wish to upgrade to a First Officer position on a Boeing 787, or a Captain on the Airbus A320, they will fall into the seniority list with all their colleagues in that exact same position. In many cases, this also means that a pilot's domicile will change if they are not senior enough to “hold it" in their new position. For this reason, upgrading can be tricky if a pilot desires to continue living in base. However, upgrading to different aircraft types after training is an important part of a pilot’s career progression, which eventually leads to a Captain position at regional or major airlines, typically after accumulating thousands of flight hours. This is the traditional path at legacy carriers, where pilots bid for wide-body positions as they move up the seniority list.

With a good attitude, pilot schedules provide nearly endless opportunities to discover new places. At worst, the schedules can be destabilizing and cumbersome. They’re remarkably unique and, like the industry itself, are as good or bad as they’re perceived to be.

Until next time…safe travels.