‘They make us pay for coffees’ – the realities of being a budget-airline pilot

If – like most people – you’ve flown with a budget airline, you know the drill. We have all grimaced at paying £3.50 for a scorching cup of tea, which requires 10 thimbles of milk to become drinkable. We have balked at having to pay extra for carrying on a backpack the size of a small cat. We have crossed our legs as an ensemble of stags in tutus queued up to use the loo.

But what is it like being behind the cockpit door? Who is that calming, invisible presence, that beacon of class in this zoolike environment, in whom we entrust our lives for an hour or two?

After training with the RAF in the late 1980s and then flying with Air 2000 (later First Choice) in the 1990s, and Emirates for more than a decade, our anonymous pilot went on to join a well-known low-cost carrier.

From unrealistic schedules to shoddy support systems, paying for coffees to what pilots really make of boozy passengers, our anonymous captain gives a rare glimpse into the low-cost cockpit.

The shifts are good

For this pilot, it was not the pride of bearing a particular logo but rather the practicalities of a fixed shift pattern that first seduced him into the world of budget flying.

“Low-cost airlines typically have a fixed-roster pattern: five on, four off, in my case. It’s attractive because we can plan our lives around it at least a year ahead. In other companies with ‘variable’ rosters, sometimes only published one month before, it can be very frustrating to plan for events such as weddings.

“I also liked the fact that most days are planned to be back in base by about midnight, and the roster alternates between early and late starts. The 5/4 pattern means you get 13 days off when booking five days of annual leave,” he says.

The pilots are running the show

The support systems, he says, are very different between low-cost and legacy long-haul airlines.

“In low-cost, the pilots and crew are very much running the show. There is minimal company intervention in the normal run of things. When there is a problem, like delays or diversions due to weather or technical problems, the wheels begin to come off because they operate their support systems on very light levels of staffing.

“They have relatively poor processes for keeping in touch with crews, and we often have to be very proactive to keep the programme going,” he adds.

Schedules are impossible

“Schedules are typically extremely tight, even unrealistic, meaning that if a delay is encountered on an early-morning flight, it is nigh-on impossible to make up the time,” our anonymous pilot says.

“Often, at the end of an early shift, we are handing the aircraft over to the afternoon crew already quite late. In peak summer time, there are often very few spare crews available to call out when there is a contingency. Legacy airlines tend to throw much more money at their operation; they have a very different pricing structure, after all. I worked at Emirates for 11 years and their ability to react positively, and even pre-empt issues, is very impressive.”

Morale? Pilots are good at moaning

“Morale is a tough one. If you ask a 23-year-old cadet, just qualified, he or she will probably tell you how fantastic it is. Give them three years and they’ll be moaning about the repeated early starts, the sometimes minimum rest between duties and the often very late finish in peak summer. Pilots are generally good at moaning.

“It also varies with the base: at big airports with many aircraft, it’s a more impersonal environment than a small one with only five or six. We don’t get food provided on board, as you do with other airlines, so we must bring our own, and the company charges us for a cup of coffee. It’s all about keeping fares down, of course, and the companies usually say that remuneration covers expenses that are usually paid for by other types of carrier.”

Pay is good (but there are add-ons)

“The pay is pretty good, it is true, but you do work hard for it. We buy our own uniforms, pay for our annual medicals and security badges and, at some airports, pay for staff parking.

“If they send us to a far location to conduct simulator training, we are obliged to pay for accommodation ourselves. Staff travel is reasonable, but nowhere near as good as the big carriers.”

Rowdy passengers don’t bother the pilot

“Rowdy and difficult passengers aren’t a problem on the flight deck until they threaten the safety of passengers, crew or aircraft. Certainly, since 9/11, we never go out of the cockpit to remonstrate with passengers; we must leave it to the cabin crew. If passengers become threatening, we will start to plan a diversion to an airport where they can be removed and possibly prosecuted.”