Title: Unveiling the Cockpit 1.1 Pilot's Work Schedule
According to the book “How to Fly the Jumbo Jet (Boeing 747)”, the daily flight schedule and working hours of a pilot living in Tokyo are arranged as follows:
Day 1 06:00 - 14:00 Tokyo Haneda - Hokkaido - Tokyo Haneda - Fukuoka. Flying 3 flights in one day. Stay overnight in Fukuoka. Day 2 08:00 - 16:00 Fukuoka - Tokyo Haneda - Kumamoto - Tokyo Haneda. Flying 3 flights. Day 3 07:00 - 12:00 Standby at home (e.g., rush to the company in case of temporary shortage due to other pilots falling ill). Day 4 14:30 - 20:30 Tokyo Haneda - Kagoshima - Tokyo Haneda. Flying 2 flights. Day 5 Day off. Day 6 Day off. Day 7 14:30 - 10:00 (Local Time) Tokyo Haneda - Los Angeles International flight. Day 8 Day off. Day 9 12:30 (Local Time) - Depart Los Angeles International flight. Day 10 - 17:00 Arrive at Tokyo Narita. Day 11 Day off. …
Generally speaking, in a month, a pilot will fly 3-4 rounds of domestic flights, with each round lasting a cycle of 3-4 days, and 2 to 3 flights per day. Additionally, on average, they fly 2 international flights. When not flying, they also have to go to work one day a month for paperwork or flight simulator training.
For pilots, there is no such thing as weekends or holidays. Also, not only pilots, but for other aircrew, ground crew, and air traffic control personnel, their days off are also without distinction of holidays.
Ordinary people look at pilots and always envy their high income, but who knows how much time they sacrifice with their families for their work and to provide us with convenient transportation.
A pilot’s duty roster generally works like this: if the flight time is 16:00 in the afternoon, he should arrive at the company (airport) an hour and a half in advance, which is 14:30. It takes more than 40 minutes to get from home in Tokyo to Haneda Airport. Considering traffic jams, they generally leave home around 13:30.
If it’s the 6:00 flight mentioned above, he needs to leave home at 3:30 in the morning. If taking off from Haneda at 6:00, generally speaking, they can arrive in Hokkaido at 7:20, then prepare for the return. Even if taking off at 8:30, returning to Haneda would be around 10:00. After that, prepare for the trip to Fukuoka, grab a quick lunch, and if departing at noon, they can arrive in Fukuoka around 14:00. After that, various checks, shift handovers, etc., mean getting off work would be around 15:00. Let’s calculate: leaving home at 3:30 in the early morning, 11 hours of work, and performing flight tasks requiring such high concentration—the physical consumption is really not something that ordinary people like us, who just sit in offices, brew a cup of tea, and slowly browse the news online, can bear.
In addition, according to the book “Captain’s Seat”, the members of the aircrew (or crew) for a day’s flight mission remain unchanged. Taking the example of “Tokyo Haneda - Hokkaido - Tokyo Haneda - Fukuoka” above, the crew members include the first officer and captain [note: original said pilot/co-pilot] and the flight attendants. They assemble at Haneda. Maybe both pilots are from Tokyo, but the flight attendants are likely partly from the Tokyo department and partly from the Fukuoka department. Fukuoka department personnel might have stayed in Tokyo after executing a flight to Haneda the previous day. But this crew must complete the round trip to Hokkaido and the flight to Fukuoka together. The crew is only officially disbanded after arriving in Fukuoka. Presumably, the Tokyo department personnel rest at the hotel, while the local employees go home.
By the way, pilots need rest, but the aircraft itself does not need rest. After reaching the Destination, other pilots will take over and continue to the next flight non-stop.
For example, take the daily schedule of China Eastern Airlines Flight 2858 shown above. First, early in the morning, operate Flight 9253 departing from Shanghai to Xiamen at 8:10. Then, in the morning, operate Flight 9254 departing from Xiamen back to Shanghai at 10:40. At noon, operate Flight 9103 departing from Shanghai to Beijing at 13:30. In the afternoon, as Flight 9154, depart from Beijing to Hangzhou at 17:50. Finally, Flight 9153 departs from Hangzhou back to Beijing at 21:00, ending the whole day’s flight mission.
(The screenshot above is from the iPhone free app China Eastern Mobile, this app can query detailed flight information and is very convenient.)