Commercial Pilots

Pilot and navigate the flight of fixed-wing aircraft on nonscheduled air carrier routes, or helicopters. Requires Commercial Pilot certificate. Includes charter pilots with similar certification, and air ambulance and air tour pilots. Excludes regional, national, and international airline pilots.

The occupation of "Commercial Pilots" carries an automation risk of 45.1%, closely aligning with its base risk of 45.8%. This moderate risk is primarily due to advances in aviation technology, including autopilot systems, advanced navigation, and enhanced diagnostic tools. Many operational and procedural elements of flying commercial aircraft are increasingly being handled by onboard systems. The nature of routine checks, consistent decision-making based on quantifiable variables, and system monitoring are conducive to automation, especially given the aviation industry's focus on safety, efficiency, and minimizing human error. Among their most automatable tasks, several core responsibilities stand out. Checking aircraft prior to flight, ensuring engines, controls, instruments, and other systems function properly is largely procedural and can be performed by intelligent inspection systems coupled with IoT sensors. Likewise, the act of co-piloting or performing captain’s duties involves procedural adherence that autopilot technologies and sophisticated control systems are increasingly managing. Calculating crucial flight variables—like airport altitude, outside temperature, plane weight, and wind speeds—to determine necessary takeoff speed is already largely automated through advanced flight management systems and real-time analytics, requiring minimal human intervention in standard scenarios. However, the occupation resists full automation because of tasks that require significant human judgment and interpersonal skill. Teaching company regulations and procedures to other pilots demands communicative abilities and the capacity to contextualize complex rules, which AI systems currently struggle to replicate. Planning and formulating flight activities, creating test schedules, and preparing evaluation reports are creative and strategic tasks involving Originality (3.0%), a bottleneck skill difficult for automation to imitate. Additionally, evaluating pilot proficiency through hands-on flight with license applicants or peers is a nuanced, human-centric activity involving skills assessment and mentorship. Together, these resistant tasks ensure that while many aspects of piloting can be automated, the occupation still requires a skilled human presence for oversight, training, and critical decision-making.