Originally Posted by
captjns
Factor the risk of being number 15,000 on the seniority list when and if a down turn occurs. Flying pax for a US carrier vs Cargo too. I went from Pax to Cargo for a year and a half before moving overseas. I didn’t think I’d make through OE. After the first week, I said to myself, what was I thinking? Cargo is the way to go… No hassle, no fuss, no muss. It’s disturbiing to hear how often and how many diversions occur due to disruptive pax.
Think long and hard before making the jump to pax ops.
Definitely valid concerns...to a point. I flew ACMI for a little bit and I heard the "cargo is sooo much better" often. The thing is, pax is really not that bad. Yes there are absolutely headaches, but boxes have their own headaches.
Boxes fly at night, you're always remote parked, grueling schedule changes (under old 121 rest rules) caused by late cargo, and finally DG/Hazmat. If you look carefully at the 121 accident rates for cargo vs pax the difference is sobering. In some ways I fully agree, no pax is great. But flying around at night, over the ocean with a bunch of DG and hoping a pallet with some lithium-ion batteries on it doesn't light itself on fire when you have no main deck extinguishing is to me less fun than potentially having to deal with an unruly pax. And yes, both those scenarios are remote, but just providing a counterpoint.
Also, diversions due to disruptive pax may seem common but I don't think they actually are, they just make a big splash when they happen. Diversions for medical emergencies and weather are much more common.
Edit: To reiterate, I don't think you should jump from FedEx unless you can drive to work at the new place or hate night flying. This is just more color on the pax vs cargo.