jbde

Airlines: Some Costs They Can't - And Shouldn't - Cut

Please explain the math:

"Today, like most every day, just over 44,000 experienced pilots"
"Over the next 24 hours, these pilots will make over 13,500 take-offs"
"they will be in command of over 36,000 hours of flight time"

This implies 3.2 crew members per leg.
Even if each cockpit crew is 3 - pilot, co-pilot and flight engineer, this seems way wrong as on average crews fly more than one leg per day if each leg averages only 2.7 hours. [I generously assume the 36,000 of flight time is leg-time and not aggregate pilot flight hours as it is hard to imagine only .82 flight-hours per pilot per day - 36,000 hour flight time divided among 44,000 pilots]

If only considering pilots, no way 44,000 used, even if each crew only flies 1 leg => 2x13,500 = 27,000

Also, what is the average load factor per leg been over the years?
The trend to larger aircraft increases this average, thus more passenger hours would naturally mean cockpit wage dollars per seat-hour would drop if salaries were the same. Dollars per seat-hour could even be dropping over time even if pilot salaries are rising.

Clearly more data [trends of - pilot count, aircraft size, load factor] is needed to confirm that cockpit crew costs are falling when measured by dollars per passenger seat-hour.