A comment found on Executive Travel’s website and made about the A380:

“Actually, there’s no difference between flying 30 passengers and 526,” says Harald Tschira, a Lufthansa first officer.

The main differences really center on what you have to learn about the systems of the aircraft.  On a larger aircraft, there are more systems to learn than, say, on an Embraer ERJ-140.  But the flying and, most specifically, the act of preparing for departure, flying a route and landing, is pretty much the same from one aircraft to another.

The idea that a larger aircraft is more difficult to fly is also specious.  It’s not.  In fact, large aircraft can often be easier to fly than smaller aircraft.

Upgrading into larger aircraft is often a large benefit for pilots because it means they’re flying flights with more hours / flight which means they have to fly fewer flights overall each month.

Nominally, you are putting more experienced pilots into cockpits of aircraft carrying more people and that might mean you have fewer accidents where there are a large number of casualties.  But I really don’t think that is substantiated by statistics.  When aircraft crash, they’re of all makes and models.  The Air France Airbus A330 disaster was a total loss of life, for instance.  Theoretically, that aircraft was staffed by very experienced pilots who all did the wrong things to recover the aircraft.

Is there a huge difference between the aircraft of size and regional jets?  No, not really.  A qualified pilot could fly either with the existing training.  Is there a reason to have the most qualified pilots on the largest aircraft?  No, not really.

So why do we do it?  Because that’s the way it’s been done since before airlines were profitable.  There was a correlation between an experienced pilot and his ability to fly a larger aircraft when airplanes were not automated.  Today, aircraft are all much more automated and have far better instrumentation which levels the playing ground.

Filed under: Airline Fleets by ajax