kevin18

You’re right. A captain isn’t middle management, they’re lower management in charge of, at most, less than 20 people they’ll likely not work with again.

They’re not equipped to manage a complex operation simply based on ten, twenty, or thirty years of flying one flight after another. They’re experts in their field, which is flying an airplane safely.

How many pilots are running successful air lines? I’ll give you one thing. Our egos are certainly over inflated and we’re really good at economics, operations, and pick any other subject. So good in fact that people have said they need another two years to figure out retirement irrespective of having the past thirty to plan it.

Guppydriver95

Lufthasa’s CEO was a pilot. There are others. You’ve gone from can’t back it up, to general insults. My point has been made. Too many years at Mesa really have given you an inferiority complex.

Guppydriver95

For the record, line Captains are NO management position. Why take the pay cut and reduction in status and responsibility? Airline manager is kinda like being the skinniest kid at fat camp. Nothing to brag about.

DarkSideMoon

Lufthansa’s CEO was not a line pilot. He has been in corporate for decades, occasionally flying the line is great but let’s be real, he’s a manager that qualified as a pilot, not a line pilot that worked their way into management. He basically started his career there as the CEO’s assistant. Occasionally flying a 320 is incidental, not causal.

OP’s point stands, pilots, as a whole, have little experience managing an organization. Being head of a short duration team is definitely a skill set and it’s not to say captains don’t manage but it’s vastly, vastly different than being in charge of long duration, much larger teams.

Pilots, in my experience, suffer from some of the same delusions other high earning high performing fields do; chiefly that just because they’re SME’s in our little specialized corner that means they’re geniuses in other aspects in life too. It’s the same delusion that leads to doctors and lawyers killing themselves flying high performance aircraft they don’t have any business flying.

Look at the amount of pilots that whine about bonuses because “they’re taxed higher” or are on their third wife or penniless despite being at a major for years. Being a skilled captain does not inherently make you a skilled company manager or, frankly, even good at managing their own lives.

khergan

Same group of guys that pretend like they were never new in the airline and that they've never made mistakes in the cockpit. They couldn't lead their way out of a wet paper bag but have grand schemes for how they would manage the airline better. They're the ones usually pontificating in the crew room to anyone who will listen that the airline will be ruined any day now because of the new hires or because of Kirby.

Guppydriver95

Pretty general statement saying absolutely nothing, but whatever you say, chief.

FrancisSawyer

Yeah but really, ridiculously good looking widgets

khergan

If the shoe fits, wear it.

Sounds like it does.

Mozam

Sounds like you have been to HQ and made it to the pickle ball court. I agree they are worthless, you could fire 50 percent and no one would even notice .

Jefferson

..and people say pilots are boring and pig headed