The Effect Of The Pandemic Period On The Performance Of Airline Pilots In Turkey

The aviation industry is one of the sectors that have been adversely affected by the pandemic, both materially and morally. In the early stages of the pandemic , air transport came to a standstill for a long time. The airline industry's inability to do business has had some consequences. Pilots, who are the last link of flight safety, which is an indispensable priority of the airline industry, have been the professional group that directly confronts the material and moral consequences of interrupted flights. When the importance of the flight performance of the pilots is evaluated, the effect of these results on the aviation sector has become suitable to increase geometrically. In this study, it is aimed to reveal the extent to which the pilots are affected by the pandemic conditions and the main reasons for these effects. The method of the study was determined as a questionnaire and one-to-one interviews with flight instructors. 148 pilots participated in the survey and 3 flight instructors were interviewed. According to the results, it has been seen that the group most affected by the effects of the pandemic is the inexperienced first officers who have just started to work and have not gained enough experience yet. It has been seen that every time they come to the cockpit, they perform as if they are sitting in that seat for the first time. It was observed that the least affected were experienced captains. However, in general, since flight is a team job, it has been observed that the workload of experienced captains increases due to inexperienced first officers, which negatively affects flight performance. However, it is thought that it is not reflected in the statistics due to the decrease in the number of flights.