My Flying News

Pilots will usually answer, “It depends” or “All of them.”

This is not the easiest question for pilots to answer because it depends upon the aircraft, the type of job, the time of year, etc. Although some pilots fly the same route every day, most do not.

Do Pilots Choose their Routes?

Maybe. Sometimes pilots get to choose the routes we fly, and sometimes we don’t. At the airlines, what you can choose to fly and when depends on your seniority and a bidding system. Even with seniority schedules can change, and reroutes can happen.

Charter pilots typically do not choose. A charter pilot is usually at the mercy of their company’s sales department.

Typical Routes

I have been a pilot for a regional airline that was a wholly-owned subsidiary of a major airline in the US. I flew for a couple of years for a corporate or part 135 charter operator. Now, I fly for a major low-cost carrier.

I will open my logbook for a behind-the-scenes look at my routes. Except for long-haul flying, I can give you a good idea of typical pilot routes.

I can export from my logbook to Google Earth KML files. Which is great because I love maps! Especially route maps!

Regional Airline Pilot Route Map – Legacy Airline

As you can see in the route map below, legacy airlines use a hub and spoke system. As a regional airline pilot, your job is to get customers from smaller cities into the hubs so the mainline carriers can take them to larger destinations around the globe.

Charter Pilot Route Map

When I flew a private jet, I worked for a charter company (Part 135 in pilot speak). Our flights were “on demand”. During the winter, I commonly flew between New York and South Florida. Over the Holidays, I did it every day, sometimes multiple times per day.

Low-Cost Carrier Route Map

I currently work for a large airline that primarily operates in North America and most of our routes are in the United States. Our longer flights are in the 5-hour to 7-hour range. However, as I examine in this article, my average flight length is shorter.

I hope the route maps above helped answer the question about pilot routes. The answer is all of them. The wonderful business of aviation takes us everywhere.