How many hours do commercial pilots work in a month?

Question

is it true that they work less than 100 hours a month?... where as other professions... one works 42 a week... which is around 160 hours or so a month.... it doest make sense... how do they make a living working such low amount of hours? And what is duty time? and does it apply to ALL commercial pilots, and not just airline pilots? does that increase the amount of hours worked for the entire month?

I just find this very confusing...

Thank you for your time and help... I do appreciate it.

Answer 1

100 hours is a flight time limitation, not a work time limitation.  

100 hours of flight time usually requires considerably more hours of work and hours of time on duty.

The limitations on flight time and duty time were intended to reduce the incidence of fatalities.

Answer 2

I would add to the answers above, most airline pilots get paid when the parking brake is released and stop getting paid when the parking brake is set. All the other time spent is not paid, checking weather, fuel, load, waiting for the airplane and we go through security just like you.

Answer 3

Ok look at it this way. Commercial pilots work on a duty basis as you mentioned. They are are on duty several hours to several days at a time. Lets take a 777 pilot, on an international track. A typical track would be flights between Washington, D.C., London, and Chicago. Now this pilot would fly a sequence of these flights according to how the airline needed him for 7-8 days. During these days he's on "duty". There is much more for a pilot to do than fly. During some of these hours on duty  he is planning his flight paths and etc etc, all the non flying stuff. Now this pilot would probably do 2 of these international duties a month, and maybe a domestic flight or two in between. During the time on duty, the 7-8 days, he's getting paid for the hours he flies, but it piles up on those 8-10 hour flights. If he flies 5 times on each duty sequence, thats already 100 hours. Now working 7-8 days straight can be stressful, and pilots cannot afford to be stressed, which is why the FAA allows a max of 100 hours per month.

Hope I helped! =]

Answer 4

Pilots are only able to FLY 100 hours a month maximum.  That has no relation to how many hours they have to work.  A pilot only gets paid for block time, which is when the aircraft is away from the gate.  They get nothing for checking the weather,preflighting the aircraft, and doing preflight and postflight checks.  Duty time is when they are at work, which is quite a bit more than flight time.

A pilot's duty and flight time has no relation to a normal 40 hour week, so just forget about comparing the two.  Our schedules are monthly, not weekly.  What day of the week it is makes no difference.  Neither do holidays or weekends.  The pay they receive sounds high if it's hourly, but that supposedly compensates for all the other hours they don't get paid for.  No, not all commercial pilots are paid the same.  Some corporate pilots and some cargo guys get salaries.  I'm not sure what you are asking about increasing the amount of hours worked for the entire month.

It is very confusing.  You won't understand it until you actually do it yourself.  I agree, it doesn't make sense.  Why do you ask?  Perhaps if you tell us what you are looking for, we can answer the question better.  Hope I helped you.

Answer 5

All the other answers here are more factually correct than mine but I thought I might be able to help you compare a little easier.  Pilots (and flight attendants) are basically paid when the plane is moving.  It'll help if you think about how YOU as a passenger travel.  To go anywhere on a domestic commercial flight you have to get to the airport early enough to check-in, check-your bags, go through security, travel to the gate, wait for boarding, board the flight, and wait for take off.  How long would you say that takes?  If you were going on a 30min. flight or a 4 hr. flight you'd have to put in the same steps, right?   Let's say you're travelling from city A to C via city B.  You arrive at the airport the (recommended) 60-90 mins. before your departure.  You then take the 4 hr. flight.  You've just put in at least 5 hrs. worth of your time for that 4 hr. flight. So now you've made it to your connecting city where you have to wait 2 hrs. for the flight from B to C.  Added together you're up to 7 hrs. and you've actually only flown 4.  See where this is going?  Suppose you're connecting flight is 1 hr. long.   When you finally arrive at your destination you will have spent 8 hrs. at an airport but only 5 on a plane...and this assumes everything ran on-time and there were no problems.   Airline crew only get paid for the 5 hrs. of the actual flight (block) time but they had to be there doing all of their other duties the same (sometimes more) 8 hrs. as you.

Try it this way.  Think about a student in school.  What if you only got credit for being there the time you were in your seat and the teacher was teaching?  None of the homeroom, class changes, assemblies, study halls, lunch, roll calls, etc.  Wouldn't seem like that much time compared to all the actual time you were there, would it?  In a nutshell it's the same sort of thing.

Answer 6

well, there's paid hours, and there's flown hours, then there's hours worked.

commercial airlines in the U.S. pay the greater of scheduled or actual block time.  Block time is the interval beginning when the brake is released at the departure gate and ending when it is set at the arrival gate (or the door is closed and then opened if the aircraft doesn't transmit telemetry).

At my company, line pilots are guaranteed 82.5 hours a month (not sure about reserves).  They get paid greater of 82.5 or flown block (or scheduled, if greater).  

I'll complicate it just a bit more by adding, they get paid the greater of scheduled or flown aircraft type (substitute a larger plane, pay 'em more, a smaller plane don't pay less).

That's what they get paid for.  But they put in a lot more hours than just the block time.

I didn't answer all your questions, but maybe that helps a bit.

Answer 7

Airline pilots are limited to 100 hours of flying in a month, 30 hours of flying in 7 days and 8 hours of flying a day. Also, I usually get 13-15 days off a month. Before you think of how great that would be, think of this

8 hours of flying means 10-12 hours on duty,legally limited to 16 hours of duty time.  So someone who works 40 hours a week is only working 8 hours over 5 days, where I could be working on 50-60 hours. There's no overtime, we just get paid for the time we fly and a per diem for expenses (true of most airlines)

Also, for those 5 days, I'm not home. At all.  Many pilots fly to their base, which adds another day (or more) at the beginning and end of each trip.  So when I'm off and home for three days in a row, I've got to do all the things that someone working 40 hours can do when they get home at night. At the same time, when I leave the cockpit, I don't take any work home with me (unless recurrent training is coming)

It's not a bad life, but it's not the easiest schedule to deal with, even if I can "only" fly 100 hours a month.

Answer 8

Some companies pay a straight salary so it doesn't matter how little you fly...but this isn't typical of the airlines.

Answer 9

not enough, i actually know a family of commercial pilots, apparently much of the time the plane is on autopilot and all the pilots do is catch up on their reading and sleep.....ahhhh sweet safety. sidenote: they do need to be somewhat alert so it would make sense for them not to work as much.