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As a halfway answer to this, I ask if specific plane types are required on these routes. If not then swap out current craft for smaller vehicles so that your p
by smkellat 7y ago
As a halfway answer to this, I ask if specific plane types are required on these routes. If not then swap out current craft for smaller vehicles so that your pilots can maintain proficiency time while still moving cargo and the reduced number of passengers. Flying isn’t like riding a bike and pilots can’t sit in simulators ground-side indefinitely. You won’t be swapping in a Dash 8 for an A380 in every case but smaller Embraer jets in lieu of the Airbus heavies could help keep the training/proficiency side going.
- sokoloff 7y agoMost anything over 12500 lbs (about 5500 kg) max takeoff weight or powered by jet engines requires the pilots to have a rating specific to the type. This means anything used in commercial service larger than a medium-sized (~8+1 seat) King Air. A pilot type rated in an A320 isn't necessarily going to have a current type rating in a Dash-8 or ERJ/CRJ. (This is both a regulatory and an actual safety hurdle.) (And of course, many of the trans-Atlantic routes can't be covered by significantly smaller equipment, though I'd expect that those routes are not flying literally empty anyway.)