3 ms·

I think the idea is you might be able to reduce the required number of pilots from 2 to 1 for some flights.

• kylec 6y ago
  Or 0, eventually
  • Robotbeat 6y ago
    Sure, but you get a huge amount of the labor cost reduction just by going from 2 to 1 and probably have a much easier time justifying it. Labor costs are already a pretty small part of air freight costs, for instance, so proportionally, the improvement in total costs (in both absolute and relative-to-total terms) from going to 1 from 2 pilots is about the same as going to 0 from 1. EDIT: Just to illustrate... a 777 Freighter can fly a 5000 mile route at like 500 miles per hour carrying about 100tons of freight, I think in one shift so you only need a pilot and copilot. That’s 50,000 ton-miles per hour. Air freight revenue is about $1.40 per ton-mile, so in terms of revenue, you’re talking $70,000 per hour. Pilot and co-pilot wages are much lower per flight hour than you’d imagine, around $20-50/hour, so combined, they both contribute about $70 in direct labor costs per hour, so already just on thousandth, or 0.1%, of the revenue from the freight they’re carrying. Even eliminating the pilots doesn’t reduce costs much! Much bigger difference for smaller and slower regional air freight routes.
• numpad0 6y ago
  Germanwings Flight 9525
  • Robotbeat 6y ago
    ...might have been prevented with self-flying...
  • benhurmarcel 6y ago
    had 2 pilots
    • numpad0 6y ago
      Happened when pilot was alone