As an aspiring pilot, it is important to understand the structure in the cockpit. Aviation has a clear hierarchy, visible in the number of stripes on the shoulders. The flight crew works in a fixed hierarchy designed for safety. From the captain, who carries final responsibility, to the supporting second officer, each crew member has specific tasks and authority. The captain sits on the left in the cockpit and takes all critical operational decisions, including the go/no-go decision. An airliner always has at least a commander and a co-pilot. The airline designates one pilot as commander, called pilot-in-command or commander in the European rules and Captain in practice. The commander is responsible for the safety of crew, passengers and cargo from the moment he or she boards until the aircraft is left after the flight, and for the operation and safety of the aircraft. Everyone on board must follow his or her lawful safety commands. The European licensing rules, Part-FCL, define the pilot-in-command as the pilot designated as commander and responsible for the safe conduct of the flight. easyJet describes the Captain as the pilot in the left-hand seat who makes the decisions that keep the flight safe and smooth and who supports the crew. The other pilot flies as co-pilot, called First Officer at most airlines. Under Part-FCL, a co-pilot is a pilot who does not fly as commander on an aircraft that requires more than one pilot, and a pilot who is on board only to receive instruction for a licence or rating does not count. The First Officer is a fully trained pilot in the right-hand seat. A senior first officer is an experienced co-pilot, not a separate licence. Pilot flying and pilot monitoring are tasks, not ranks, and both a commander and a co-pilot must have made at least 3 take-offs, approaches and landings as pilot flying in the preceding 90 days to carry passengers. In practice, the Captain and First Officer alternate the roles of pilot flying and pilot monitoring per flight, and the Captain remains ultimately responsible even as pilot monitoring. If pilots are assigned the roles of pilot flying and pilot monitoring, EASA requires them to be assessed in both roles during the line check. In the EASA template for stall recovery, the division of tasks is as follows: the pilot flying controls the aircraft, while the pilot monitoring watches speed and attitude and calls out deviations. You can see the rank on the uniform: a Captain wears four stripes, a First Officer three and a second officer two. Stripes are an airline custom and do not appear in the European licensing rules, Part-FCL, or the air operations rules, where only the roles of commander, co-pilot and cruise relief co-pilot count.1345

A third role that Part-FCL names separately is the cruise relief co-pilot, a pilot who relieves the co-pilot at the controls during the cruise above flight level (FL) 200, on a flight with multiple pilots. This pilot provides relief during the cruise and does not take off or land. This pilot holds at least a commercial pilot licence (CPL) with an instrument rating and completes the airline's conversion and type rating training, but without the take-off and landing training. The recurrent checks of a cruise relief co-pilot do not include a take-off, but landings are covered, at least in the role of pilot monitoring. A cruise relief co-pilot receives a restricted type rating and, to remove the restriction, the pilot completes an assessment and training at an approved training organisation (ATO), a skill test and then experience or flight training with take-offs, landings and go-arounds. He or she may log all time in a pilot seat as co-pilot time. A second officer who does have to take off and land needs a full type rating. The title second officer means something different depending on the airline. At KLM the second officer is a long-haul role on the Boeing 777/787. Graduates of the KLM Flight Academy move on to KLM as second officer on the Boeing 777/787 or as First Officer on the Embraer 170. At easyJet, second officer is the entry role for co-pilots on short-haul.12345

For the First Officer role in commercial aviation a CPL is sufficient, or a multi-crew pilot licence (MPL), a licence that applies solely to co-pilot duties on aircraft that must be flown with a co-pilot. After an integrated course or modular route you hold a frozen ATPL, which means the theory is complete but the required flying hours are still missing. An ATPL gives the right to fly as commander, or PIC, on aeroplanes in commercial aviation, whereas with a CPL you may only be commander in commercial aviation on a single-pilot aeroplane, and otherwise co-pilot. For an ATPL(A) you need an MPL, or a CPL(A) with a multi-engine instrument rating and multi-crew cooperation (MCC) training, plus at least 1,500 flying hours on aeroplanes, of which at least 500 hours in multi-pilot operations. The rule also requires 200 hours cross-country, 75 hours of instrument time and 100 hours of night flying. For easyJet direct entry co-pilots, the requirement is 500 hours on the A320, or without that type rating 1,000 hours of which 500 on aircraft above 10 tonnes.345

A loan for pilot training is a major commitment with no job guarantee. Aviation is cyclical, and if you graduate during a downturn, you may only find your first job as a first officer later, while your repayments have already started. It is advisable to work through scenarios, for example finding work 6 or 12 months later. Landing your first job as a first officer at an airline is a major challenge, and starting straight away close to home is seen as unrealistic. If a first job at airlines in your own country does not come quickly, moving abroad, for example to Ryanair, Wizz Air, Air Baltic or SunAir, is an option. Your chance of success is proportional to how widely you apply. Older career changers have less time to sit out a poor job market, and wanting to work only in your home country severely limits your chances.5

Finding a first job is often challenging, and according to a pilot in 2025, apart from KLM Flight Academy graduates, almost none of the pilots taking part in the discussion had a free choice of their first job. Some went through years of assessments across Europe before being hired. Around 2010 one pilot sent more than 150 applications in six months and received only a few responses. Another pilot, who had been out of work for almost a year at the end of 2009 with about 1000 hours of flying experience, found that this experience hardly counted in applications and felt as if he was back to ab initio.678

According to an applicant in November 2017, new external pilots joined KLM as second officers on the 777, 747 or A330, and for the time being there were no first officer positions on the Embraer 190/175. Around 2006, ab initio pilots joined KLM as co-pilots on the Fokker 50 or Fokker 70/100, or as cruise co-pilots (S/O) on the Boeing 777, 747, MD-11 or Airbus A330. Under the 2006 KLM collective labour agreement, KLM was allowed to place new pilots directly as co-pilots on the Boeing 737 if no existing staff bid for the positions. According to one pilot writing in 2008, at KLM Cityhopper you could start flying as a first officer after about half a year if you did not want to jumpseat. In 2013 Transavia stated that the day after passing your aircraft exam you join as a Junior First Officer on a permanent contract with a two-month probation period. Wizz Air claims that its ab initio cadet programme, WAPA, trains candidates without flying experience to type-rated first officer on the Airbus A320/A321, with a guaranteed first officer position at Wizz Air after successful completion. A former Norwegian first officer warned in 2017 that agreements were not always honoured. For example, the promised upgrade and base changed after the contract was signed. In 2017 a pilots' union advised fresh graduates not to join Norwegian.59101112

Pilots describe the first officer role in mixed terms, from awesome flying and nice colleagues to challenges such as early alarms. The interaction between captain and first officer is an important part of the experience, and according to a captain in 2024, flights that are genuinely unpleasant because of interpersonal problems are extremely rare. A 777 captain described in 2024 that a first officer is not always the least experienced pilot, as his first officer had previously flown as captain on the A320 for years. A captain's expectations of a first officer can vary; a 777 captain in 2024, for example, does not need to be told about small speed deviations, such as 218 instead of the selected 220 kt on autopilot, even though the procedure prescribes -0/+10. Assertiveness in the cockpit increases as there is less time to recover, meaning a suggestion at 10,000 ft is different from a direct correction at 200 ft. The most recent experiences include that of a first officer who in 2024 had been flying the A320 for 7 years, who still finds the flying awesome, the company fine and colleagues almost always nice. A recurring downside is sometimes an alarm at 03:30 five days in a row. An MPL holder who started as a first officer on the A320 in 2024 notes that an MPL with a large, stable airline is worth considering. The wet-lease sector offers a different work pattern, and according to a pilot in 2024, you work there for example 20 days on and 10 off, which often amounts to about 8 days actually at home. Salaries outside legacy airlines such as KLM and Lufthansa are low in this sector. A Fokker 50 pilot at KLM Cityhopper experienced an imposed 5-week roster in 2006, with only requests possible. This roster included a maximum of 4 days away with 3 to 4 sectors per day, and earlier he mentioned about 10 overnights on a roster.1013

KLM has no direct-entry captains or direct-entry first officers at a higher grade, and even a pilot with thousands of hours on type starts in function block V. Anyone who joined KLM at the end of 2017 started at the bottom of the seniority list, with some 1,160 pilots ahead of them who were not yet intercontinental co-pilots. British Airways does hire direct-entry pilots for fleets with a shortage, but there too you start at the bottom of the seniority list. When moving from one airline to another, bear in mind that after a recent type rating you must contractually repay the costs. At a new airline you also usually start again as a first officer, even if you were a captain elsewhere. In 2009 one pilot advised new pilots never to pay for a type rating themselves.8911

At KLM, after European first officer you can move on to Embraer captain, intercontinental first officer, 737 captain or intercontinental captain, according to pilot discussions in 2017. In 2017, progression from second officer via European first officer to Embraer captain took about 9.5 years. For intercontinental first officer this was 13 years, for 737 captain 14 years and for intercontinental captain 20 years, according to pilot discussions in 2017. Cadet graduates at Cathay Pacific start as second officer and progress to first officer after gaining operational experience.59

After a type rating, the airline provides conversion training, first with a proficiency check, then line flights under supervision, or LIFUS, and finally a line check. Experienced pilots undergo assessments when moving to another airline, on promotion from first officer to captain, on a type rating conversion and at periodic recurrent checks. A pilot may only be designated as commander if he or she has the minimum experience set out in the operations manual, has adequate knowledge of the route and aerodromes and, on promotion from co-pilot to commander, has completed the airline's command course. You become Captain through the command course: simulator training, a proficiency check as commander, training in the commander's responsibilities, at least 10 sectors of line training as commander under supervision, a line check as commander and CRM (Crew Resource Management) training. No more than one inexperienced pilot may be in the cockpit. PIC under supervision, or PICUS, means that a co-pilot performs the duties of the commander under the supervision of the commander, which is how a First Officer builds the commander hours needed for the ATPL. The full ATPL follows once the hours have been reached, after a skill test as commander of a multi-pilot aeroplane, in the aircraft or in a simulator. How long you remain a First Officer depends heavily on the airline and the economy, and periods of 4 to 20 years are cited. Progression to a command position is a recurring theme, and experiences range from very positive, such as a pilot who flew as a first officer on the 737 at the age of 21 and warmly recommended Transavia as an employer in 2019, to challenging, with a Transavia first officer in 2013 having no prospect of a command after about 8 years of service and potentially waiting another 8 years. This was because retirements were not being replaced, which led to poor progression, and some pilots therefore left for other airlines, such as Emirates. Ryanair says it can train low-hours cadets to Captain within 4 to 5 years of their first type rating course, through its own Route to Command programme. Ryanair lists, alongside Captain, the roles line training captain (LTC), TRE and TRI as career progression for pilots, who are instructors and examiners who train and check colleagues alongside line flying. A TRI, or type rating instructor, for multi-pilot aircraft provides instruction for the issue, revalidation and renewal of type ratings and for MCC training, and may also teach on the MPL course under certain conditions. A TRE, or type rating examiner, conducts skill tests for type ratings, proficiency checks to revalidate type ratings and instrument ratings, and skill tests for the ATPL(A). In the line flying phase of the MPL course, the student flies under the supervision of a line training captain or a TRI(A), and a line training captain is a commander who trains during regular line flights.135121415