Can I live in the north or England and be a BA short haul pilot?

Hi Luke.

We have a lot of short haul pilots who commute from a variety of places. They manage this in a variety of ways but usually by grouping their working days together and bidding for longer trips. Your seniority will depend on the trips you get but we have a range from day trips to 5 day trips. People also book rooms to stay locally while they are working. It does require planning and flexibility but it is possible.

I hope this helps!

Best wishes

Kate

Okay thank you so much I really appreciate. What would a working week for a short haul pilot look like, I heard somewhere that normally you do three early, three late flights and then three days off? I would love to become a pilot but I value family time too.

Hi Luke.

I agree that family time is important. A short haul pilot at Heathrow can have very varied rosters. The credit based bidding system depends on seniority as to how much control you get and initially will include a lot of weekends. We also have reserve blocks of 6 days. You can generally group all your work in blocks with blocks of days off and we have the ability to swap too. As your seniority increases, which tends to be quite quick on short haul, you get more control and choice on your roster. There is a wide variety of destinations and night stops which make it even more varied.

I hope this is helpful.

Happy New Year

Kate