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I was surprised by that 10,000 pilot number. It seems huge until you look it up and realize they have 752 planes. Each plane averages 6 flights/day. So they hav
by bonestamp2 7y ago
I was surprised by that 10,000 pilot number. It seems huge until you look it up and realize they have 752 planes. Each plane averages 6 flights/day. So they have about 13 pilots per plane and an average of 2 pilots per flight. *Of course, many of those flights are flown by the same pilots which gives them coverage for the various shifts. The numbers are probably a little more off now too since some of their fleet is idle. Either way, 10,000 pilots doesn't even sound like enough after roughing up the numbers.
- dmurray 7y ago13 pilots per plane sounds like more than enough. Each plane needs two pilots at a time. Each plane is manned maybe 105 hours a week (say 17 hours a day on average, less 5% of the time in maintenance), so it requires 210 pilot-hours per week. A full time employee works about 35 hours a week after sick leave and holidays. So you need about six full-time pilots per plane. Pilots spend some time in training and admin outside of the plane, but it could hardly amount to enough to double the staffing requirements, especially for Southwest who are famously lean and efficient. I'd guess a significant number of the 10,000 are on standby or get limited hours (but of course need to be trained to the same level as full-timers).
- LanceH 7y agoYou need 1 crew per flight, but really 2 crews per day per plane. Pilots work about half the days, so 4 crews per plane. That gets you to 8 pilots per plane, which is roughly 6k pilots without redundancy or pilots working very limited segments.
- hindsightbias 7y agoPilots are limited to 100 hours flight duty per 28 days and 190 hours total duty time. SW had a fairly lower flight rate a few years back, something like 60 hours if I remember correctly.