Do pilots have different rankings?

The answer to this question is a little complicated. In the air force or defence force, for example, pilots will be assigned and can move up through the ranks, very much like any other military personnel. A similar system will apply to those who are enlisted with law enforcement, coast guard etc.

In the private sector, however, it works slightly differently. Pilots can obtain different levels of pilot licence qualifications. Once these milestones have been achieved, their ‘ranking’ progresses in the amount of experience they acquire on the job. Normally this is obtained in hours of flight time, or years of service, with whichever company or corporation they work for. As an example, commercial airlines award their pilots with different levels of seniority, based on their years of service with the airline and their hours flown. Airlines, like many other aviation operators, utilize what is known as multi-crew environments. This is where the workload in flight for a single pilot, is too high in order to be carried out safely and effectively. An additional pilot or flight deck crew member is then added. In this case, the pilots are also assigned a position (with a ranking), inside the cockpit. An example would be the captain and the first officer, on board the flight deck of a modern commercial aircraft. Every company or organization does reserve the right to structure their employee’s progress, or ranking, in a manner that suits their business and type of work, best.

When it comes to personnel licencing, in the civil aviation industry, there is a structure outlined by the overseeing authority in that particular country, that needs to be followed in order for their pilots to obtain their respective licences. In South Africa, a pilot starts out their career as a student pilot with a student pilot licence (SPL) and progresses all the way up to an airline transport pilot licence (ATPL). From the SPL, they will acquire their private pilot licence (PPL), commercial pilot licence (CPL) and then onto their ATPL. I will go into more details regarding each level of pilot licence in my upcoming entries. It does need to be mentioned that in addition to these licences, pilots are able to obtain additional skills training and qualifications in addition to the aforementioned licences, for example, night and instrument ratings, and type or class ratings for different types of aircraft. But, more of this later…