Airline Pilot Job Satisfaction during uncertainty: the case of COVID-19

The impact of the Coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) pandemic on the world's commercial aviation industry was unprecedented. National lockdowns and border closures effectively prohibited passenger air travel. Airlines responded by reducing operations, parking aircraft, and making staff, including pilots, furloughed or redundant. Ultimately this had significant impacts on pilots and their job satisfaction. During the recovery from the pandemic, the industry stabilised but left lasting effects on pilots, their profession, and their job satisfaction. The thesis aimed to examine commercial airline pilots’ job satisfaction during uncertainty. To address this aim, the thesis reviewed the case of the COVID-19 pandemic and utilised the Motivation-Hygiene Theory to explore the experiences of pilots who were members of carefully selected commercial airline pilot unions in Oceania and Europe between 2021 and 2023. New empirical evidence, derived from 510 online questionnaire responses and 50 in-depth semi-structured interviews, revealed several key findings. Satisfaction for some workplace factors, including job security, salary and working conditions fluctuated significantly during uncertainty, while satisfaction with other factors, such as responsibility and work itself remained largely stable. Moreover, satisfaction with respect to certain workplace factors, such as career advancement opportunities, may fluctuate in relevance and importance depending on the temporal and/or demographic context. In addition, several new profession-specific workplace factors were identified, namely work-life balance, rosters, relationships with leadership and unions, job retention and seniority. This highlights the dynamic nature of job satisfaction and underscores the need for tailored approaches to addressing pilots' needs in uncertain environments. The research examines the experiences of pilots and makes both theoretical and empirical contributions to existing studies of job satisfaction as well as offering practical recommendations to airlines and pilot unions who are seeking to improve airline pilot job satisfaction during times of future uncertainty.

Name dc:type.qualificationname

PhD

Level dc:type.qualificationlevel

Doctoral

Grantor dc:publisher.institution

De Montfort University

Year dc:date.issued

2025

Author dc:creator

• Ward, Saskia

Licence

• https://dora.dmu.ac.uk/bitstreams/700a31f3-336e-4dc6-bcda-7c96d950dcb8/download