Air France – Profession: Flight Captain

On a day-to-day basis, the airline pilot is mainly concerned with flying the aircraft and dealing with flight telecommunications, navigation and mechanical monitoring procedures. The pilot shares the safety and emergency rescue operations with the cabin crews (flight attendants). 

Starting with the technical analysis of the flight file (weather constraints, choice of flight routes, amount of fuel, flight particularities, etc.) through to the flight completion (crew debriefings and flight reports), the pilot takes care of all priorities which are flight safety and security and operating performance (punctuality, limiting impact on the environment).



Two categories of pilots — flight captain and first officer



The flight captain manages the crew and takes all necessary decisions with his crew from preparing the flight through to its completion with flight safety and security a constant top priority. He takes responsibility for the mission through delegation of authority from the CEO. 



The co-pilot or first officer is second-ranking in the hierarchical structure of the crew. His qualifications allow him to assume the same functions as the flight captain, i.e., flying the aircraft along with the flight navigation, telecommunications and mechanical monitoring procedures. 



On long flights, the crew may comprise more than one first officer