Cargo vs. Passenger Life
 

Hello everyone. As some of you who have read my last thread know I am aiming to be a cargo pilot for UPS in the future. I just wanted to know what are the differences between being a pilot for a cargo airline compared to a passenger airline.

I’ve heard many different things but at the end of the day I want to travel the world from a young age, have nice layovers in cool places, maximize my salary as much as I can, and have opportunities to reach an executive level in whatever company I join. Which one between cargo and passenger service would be the best for my goals?

bruh.

pax moves pax, box haulers move boxes (and occasionally larger things).
Pax operates primarily during business hours, boxes are mega-hub turns at 02:00.
Pax means gate agents, boarding and deplaning, FA's (both a plus and a minus), people stressed out about making connections, losing luggage, getting in fights, but also giving little kids plastic wings, newer planes with nicer amenities,enabling family vacations or business trips, and connecting human beings
Boxes means cargo terminals that the Uber won't understand where you want to go, lots of backside of the clock flying, a constantly changing circadian rhythm, out-and-backs to MEM, ANC, or SDF from garden spots like PHL, ONT, and RFD. No pax getting in fights or yelling at geriatric FA's about missing their connections but sometimes lithium batteries have a tendency to explode, or armored fighting vehicles shift in flight, or engine pods fall off the wing at V1. You're flying older, often converted, less equipped planes (no wifi), and you'll run out of landing currency because you spend so much time in the bunk.
Do you want to sit at the Starbucks or the Chick-fil-A in Terminal B and walk your rolly bag to the gate with your skipper's hat on, or do you want to microwave catering somewhere over the pacific in your pajamas for the 5th time this month?

What constitutes a cool place? For some people going to BNA or AUS every weekend is a good layover, and pax carriers have more variety and better zed arrangements even with foreign airlines, so you can basically get wherever you want on company or alliance metal. Salary is going to be better at a legacy for the foreseeable future (DAL new contract coming up and AA/UA have snap up, WN has the highest paid 73 drivers in the world, TBD with the AS-HA merger), FDX is a nightmare right now and UPS is only marginally better. If you want to scratch the itch of trying to talk to foreign controllers in a widebody aircraft you can consider doing ACMI flying with a company like Atlas for a few years and then try to leverage that into a more stable job, but it will take equally long to get to a legacy than just waiting for the flow.

If you want to go into management you'd get further quicker at a regional or LCC, but it's hard to be both a line pilot and an executive and usually the business concerns take you out of the cockpit fairly quickly.

My advice is shoot the gator closest to the boat, get all your ratings and build the time you need to get to ATP mins then go to the first regional that calls, they're not all that much different except most of them DO meter their flows, so if your goal is AA don't go to Eagle, etc. Get multi turbine time, upgrade, get turbine PIC, start throwing apps out: ACMI, LCC, NJ/FJ, Legacy, get as far as you can as quickly as you can before the music stops.

Yes, way too soon to be choosing cargo vs. pax, or any particular airline.

The majority of us don't end up working for our "dream" airline anyway. The last few years was an anomaly, historically you don't get to pick your major airline, they will pick you and you'll just be thankful that somebody did.

With that said objectively the notable differences are...

1. Cargo pilots don't have to deal with certain pax hassles like TSA, at least not as often (and yes they can fly in pajamas). In this day and age pax pilots essentially never personally interact with problem pax... they have people who do that on the ground (managers and cops), and the cockpit door stays locked in flight.

2. Cargo pilots objectively have more redeye type flying overall than pax airlines. Yes you can avoid it with seniority, but it will take more seniority than at pax airlines in general.

3. Cargo airlines have less stringent safety rules. Mainly rest rules, and hazmat cargo rules (no idea if that had anything to do with current events today, but I doubt it since it looked like an engine failure.) UPS has had recent fatal accidents related to both night flying fatigue and hazmat (battery fire). Both UPS and FDX seem to have more recent fatal accidents per capita than major pax airlines (not counting regionals, since they're not really career destination airlines).

You’re trolling, right?
But if not, previous replies are a good read. As for trying to score some “cool” overnights; maybe work your way to a cush part 91 owned, long range aircraft 🤷🏼‍♂️

I haul boxes, my buddy does the pax side.
I find strange on layovers, my buddy doesn't have to ;)

The one that hires you and pays your bills.

You don't necessarily get to choose.

Never thought of that, but yeah companionship comes installed as part of the minimum equipment list on a pax airliner, if one is so inclined.