At most airlines the pilot ranks run in this order: cadet pilot, second officer, first officer, senior first officer, captain. The captain is the most senior pilot on board and holds command of the aircraft. There is no single worldwide ladder, though: ranks are titles each airline sets for itself, so the number of steps and the names on them change from carrier to carrier.
What is regulated is your licence, and a licence is a different thing from a rank. This guide covers both, the ranks you see on a uniform and the licences that sit behind them.
Pilot ranks in order
1. Cadet pilot
A cadet is a trainee. Cadets fly with an instructor or a training captain, working towards the licence they need before anyone can pay them to fly. They are learning the job rather than holding a seat in a working crew.
Cadet routes vary widely. Some are airline sponsored, some are self funded through a flight school, and some airlines gate entry on an aviation aptitude test: SWISS, for example, takes pilot applicants only if they have passed the DLR Test or hold a SPHAIR certificate.
Under UK Civil Aviation Authority rules, a modular commercial pilot licence course cannot start until the applicant has already logged 150 hours of flight time.
2. Second officer
Second officer is a third pilot seat, and not every airline has one. Where the rank exists it is generally used on long flights that need more than two pilots, so the operating crew can take rest breaks in turn.
The regulations do not use the term. In European air operations rules the equivalent role is the cruise relief co-pilot, a pilot qualified to relieve the co-pilot at the controls during the cruise but not for take-off and landing. What the airline calls that seat is up to the airline.
3. First officer, also called the co-pilot
The first officer is second in command, and this is the rank most people mean when they say co-pilot. First officers fly the aircraft in turn with the captain, run checklists, handle the radio, and share flight planning and pre-flight checks.
It is not a junior version of the captain's job. On any given sector the first officer may be the pilot flying while the captain monitors. What the captain keeps at all times is command.
To occupy that seat in commercial air transport the UK CAA requires at least a commercial pilot licence. In the United States the bar is higher: under 14 CFR 121.436 the second in command on a Part 121 airline flight must hold an airline transport pilot certificate and a type rating for the aircraft being flown.
4. Senior first officer
Some airlines add a senior first officer rank between first officer and captain. It is a seniority step rather than a change of seat: the flying duties are the first officer's duties, carried out with more experience behind them and often with extra responsibilities on the ground or in training.
Other airlines have no such rank and go straight from first officer to captain.
5. Captain
The captain is the highest rank on the flight deck, and the answer to what the highest pilot rank is. The captain carries final authority for the aircraft, the crew and everyone on board, from pre-flight planning through to the post-flight paperwork, and conventionally occupies the left-hand seat.
European air operations rules use the word commander rather than captain, and they put the point about authority precisely: the commander may delegate the conduct of the flight to another suitably qualified pilot, but command itself does not move with it.
To act as pilot in command in commercial air transport the UK CAA requires an airline transport pilot licence for aeroplanes. That licence has a minimum age of 21 and needs 1,500 hours of flight time, including 500 hours in multi-pilot operations and either 500 hours as pilot in command under supervision or 250 hours as pilot in command. The US requirement is comparable in scale: an FAA airline transport pilot certificate also needs 1,500 hours of total time, and a Part 121 captain needs a further 1,000 hours as second in command in Part 121 operations on top of that.
Is there a rank above captain?
Not in terms of command. Nothing on the aircraft outranks the captain.
What airlines do add are captain roles with extra duties attached: training captain, line training captain, fleet captain, chief pilot. A training captain, for instance, is a fully qualified captain who also trains and checks other pilots. These are jobs rather than higher ranks, and the titles are not standardised, which is why a search for "senior captain" returns so many different answers.
Licences and ranks are not the same thing
This is the distinction that causes most of the confusion, so it is worth being blunt about.
A licence is issued by a regulator and means the same thing everywhere that regulator's rules apply. The UK CAA ladder for aeroplanes runs:
- PPL, private pilot licence. Minimum age 17. Requires 40 hours of flight instruction, up to 5 of which may be in an approved simulator, reduced to 35 hours at certain approved training organisations. Allows you to act as pilot in command in non-commercial flying only.
- CPL, commercial pilot licence. Minimum age 18. Allows you to be paid to fly: co-pilot in commercial air transport, and pilot in command of single-pilot aircraft, both subject to restrictions.
- ATPL, airline transport pilot licence. Minimum age 21, 1,500 hours. Allows you to act as pilot in command in commercial air transport, which is what a captain's seat requires.
A rank is issued by your employer. It is a job title on a roster, it carries a pay scale, and the airline defines it. Two pilots holding identical ATPLs can be a first officer at one airline and a captain at another.
EASA and the FAA run their own versions of this ladder and the detail differs. The FAA issues an airline transport pilot certificate rather than an ATPL, for example, and allows a restricted version at fewer hours for some military and degree-qualified applicants. Check the requirements of the authority that will actually issue your licence.
What the stripes on a pilot's uniform mean
Stripes are not regulated. No authority sets them, and airlines are free to use what they like, so you will find exceptions to any list. The common pattern in commercial aviation is:
- One stripe: cadet or trainee pilot
- Two stripes: second officer
- Three stripes: first officer, and senior first officer where that rank exists
- Four stripes: captain
The pattern tracks responsibility rather than hours flown. Four stripes means command.
How long does it take to go from co-pilot to captain?
There is no fixed answer, and any guide that gives you one is guessing.
What is fixed is the licence requirement: 1,500 hours for a UK ATPL or an FAA airline transport pilot certificate, plus, for a US Part 121 captain, 1,000 hours as second in command in airline operations. Everything past that point is the airline's decision, and it turns on how quickly command seats open up. Vacancies come from fleet growth and from retirements, so the same pilot can wait very different lengths of time at two different carriers. That is also why an experienced first officer may stay a first officer for years: it is rarely a judgement on the pilot.
What is the difference between a pilot and a captain?
Pilot is the general term for anyone qualified to fly the aircraft. Captain is a rank, and it means one specific thing: the pilot in command of that flight.
Every captain is a pilot. Not every pilot on the flight deck is the captain, and on a two-crew flight only one of them can be.
Preparing for pilot selection
Airline and cadet selection reaches well beyond flying ability, and the assessments usually come early. You can practise the question types that come up most often:
- Numerical reasoning, for the fuel, weight and performance arithmetic that runs through the job
- Verbal reasoning, for reading procedures and briefings accurately under time pressure
- Situational judgement, for the crew and passenger scenarios selection days lean on
- Abstract reasoning, for the pattern and sequence questions used in aptitude batteries
