Boeing and Airbus have undoubtedly one of the biggest rivalries in the aviation industry, and for a good reason. Both manufacturers produce amazing state of the art machines and are also the two leading suppliers of commercial aircraft.
In 2018 alone, Boeing delivered an astonishing 893 planes, and following closely behind was Airbus, delivering a total of 800 planes. With those numbers, it’s not hard to see why they’re constantly competing with each other.
That said, most airlines will carry planes from one or the other, with the bigger airlines taking a selection of planes from both manufacturers.
Planes like the A320 and B737 on paper have almost identical performance, specifications, and even their general looks. Talk about a rivalry, huh?
Can an Airbus pilot fly a Boeing? Well, the short answer is yes. Technically, an Airbus pilot can fly almost any aircraft if he/she has the related Multi-Engine Instrument ratings, together with the relevant airplane specific Type Ratings. However, many pilots are not type rated on both Boeing and Airbus airplanes.
In this article, we’re going to have a closer look at the differences between Airbus and Boeing, what’s required to fly either of the planes. We’ll also look at which plane pilots generally prefer.
Let’s begin with the requirements to fly any of the two!
Table of Contents
What’s Required to fly Either Airbus or Boeing?
Depending on where you’re from, these requirements might differ. However, what’s certain, is that you need to hold at least a Private Pilot’s License (PPL) in order to fly an aircraft.
That said, even if you do hold a PPL with the related ratings and type ratings of the aircraft that you intend to fly, you would not legally be entitled to get paid for the hours that you fly.
By law, the PPL license only allows you to fly as a pilot in command without payment.
Therefore if you want to pilot an A320 for example, you would need to own or rent one on your own in order to pilot it.
At an entry price of about $110 million for the A320 Neo, I’d say owning one is rather out of reach for common-folk like me.
Interestingly enough, some famous celebrities have actually done this.
John Travolta, most famous for his work in the movies ‘Grease’ and ‘Saturday Night Fever’, not only holds a PPL with the relevant ratings to fly his own jets, his house in Ocala, Florida is located within an actual airport (Jumbolair Aviation Estate).
He also owns quite a fleet of aircraft with the most famous aircraft being the ex Qantas B707 jet which is named in honor of his children, “Jett Clipper Ella”.
What’s Required to Fly a Boeing or an Airbus for an Airline?
1. Commercial Pilot’s License (CPL)
The CPL is the all-encompassing license that will enable you to get paid for your work. If you do not hold a CPL, you will not be allowed to be paid to fly.
Generally, the CPL has basic hourly requirements (around 200 total flying hours) that will be required in order to qualify to take the CPL general flight test.
2. ATPL Certification
Depending on where you’re from, you will fall under the rules set by EASA or FAA.
For pilots flying under EASA, you will need to complete a total of 14 theoretical papers usually within a period of 6 months. These papers are actually rather challenging given the short span of time cadets are given.
The FAA ATP certificate however only requires 1 theory test which covers all the related areas of knowledge.
Completing these certifications will give you the right to hold a ‘frozen’ ATPL. (Explained in just a bit)
Once you have the required 1,500 flight hours, your license becomes unfrozen and you can technically exercise CPL privileges in an airline, i.e being the Pilot-in-Command, otherwise known as the PIC.
3. Frozen and Unfrozen ATPL
The vast majority of pilots who fly commercial jets, have at least a ‘frozen’ Airline Transport Pilot License (ATPL).
A ‘frozen’ Airline Transport Pilot License (ATPL) simply is a slang that refers to the qualifications of a pilot who has passed all ATPL theoretical exams but has not met his flight requirements.
This ‘frozen’ ATPL qualifies pilots to fly as second in command in the aircraft, and will then will be converted to a full or “unfrozen” license once the hour requirements are met.
In order to qualify for a full (sometimes referred to as unfrozen) ATPL, you need:
- A Commercial Pilot License with a Multi-Engine Instrument Rating
- To complete and pass ATPL theory examinations
- 1,500 hours of flight time on the specific type of airplane you want to fly
4. Multi-Engine Instrument Rating (MEIR)
If you are training for the position of the first officer for an airline, this rating usually tags along with your CPL.
The MEIR rating basically teaches and enables a pilot to fly a multi-engine aircraft via Instrument Flight Rules (IFR), which is essentially flying with the sole use of the aircraft’s instruments, without any visual cues from external references.
For example, I did my CPL general flight test under Visual Flight Rules, however, I also did a technical theory exam for the specific aircraft I was flying in at the time (DA42) and a separate instrument flight test which was specifically for the instrument rating (IR) under IFR conditions.
Airlines will generally require this as flying a commercial jet is almost exclusively done via IFR. Therefore acquiring an instrument rating (IR) is essential to be able to fly for an airline.
5. Type Rating: The Last Step!
After you’ve managed to obtain the relevant base licenses, the last and final step is to obtain a type rating for the specific aircraft that you intend to fly on.
The type rating is a rating that certifies the pilot to fly the specific aircraft type, such as a Boeing 737, or an Airbus A320. This usually is compulsory in commercial aviation, as it ensures pilots conform to a certain standard that is fit for passenger transport.
Airbus VS Boeing: What Are The Differences For Pilots?
To begin with, Airbus is a French manufacturer whereas Boeing is American.
Generally, both companies produce some of the best planes in commercial aviation, so it’s actually not very fair to say one company is better than the other.
That said, both companies have stark differences in terms of system design.
Yoke Vs Side Stick
The cockpit layout of both manufacturers differs quite a lot. One of the key differences is the use of a side stick in Airbus planes as compared to a yoke in Boeing planes.
Below is a cockpit of the Airbus A330 with side sticks…
… And below is the cockpit of a Being 737 with its traditional yoke.
The side stick in the Airbus cockpit has no inbuilt feedback meaning that it only sends signals to the computer.
Boeing’s control column, on the other hand, has feedback from the computers, reacting in a similar way as it would mechanically.
Airbus Fly By Wire System
The newer Airbus models, i.e the A320 and onwards are almost entirely controlled via fly-by-wire (FBW). This essentially means that all pilot inputs through the side stick go through a computer, which then decides what’s the best way to achieve the specific movement the pilot wants.
The FBW is useful because it monitors the signals sent by the pilot, and compares it to what’s actually happening outside, in essence preventing the plane from making dangerous maneuvers.
In aviation terms, this is called that the computer ensures the aircraft stays within the flight envelope. And since most aviation-related incidents happen due to pilot error, that’s a good thing, right?
Well, that’s actually part of the problem. While it is true that FBW does prevent dangerous aircraft states, it also removes a lot of the feedback and feel that is associated with actually flying the plane. So much so that pilots who fly Airbus planes say it’s much more like handling a computer game than flying a plane.
Boeing’s Fly By Wire Systems
Similar to Airbus, most of Boeing’s newer aircraft i.e from B777 onwards also are FBW.
However what Boeing does differently is that it provides a system that responds similarly to how a mechanically controlled aircraft would respond.
This is a big difference to the Airbus philosophy and means that it “informs the pilot” that the command given would be outside its flight envelope, thereby producing mechanical warnings such as stick shakers, heavy control column, etc.
While these warnings are also present in Airbus, the difference is that you can actually feel the weight as you try to perform the maneuver in a Boeing plane. In the Airbus, you can pull the side stick all the way back without feeling any form of feedback.
Verdict
Most commercial airliners now have some systems that will override the moves of the pilots or provide some form of feedback that will let the pilot know that the plane is close to exceeding the flight envelope.
The biggest difference between Airbus and Boeing is that Airbus has more of these systems which essentially are set to trigger earlier.
Do pilots prefer Airbus or Boeing?
Generally speaking, pilots of the respective manufacturers tend to like the plane they spend the most time in, which is a logical deduction considering you’d be comfortable with the things you spend the most time doing.
There are small groups of pilots who have flown aircraft from both manufacturers and most of them tend to say they have no preference over which aircraft they prefer as each aircraft has its own different characteristics.
For example, some pilots cite that the B737 lands better in heavy crosswinds as compared to the A320.
At the same time, some pilots complained that the control column of the Boeing took up too much space and was cumbersome when it came to mealtimes.
Which is Safer Airbus or Boeing?
I guess for us to put this into numbers, the best way would be to compare the statistics between both manufacturers. You can find the statistics here!
For the purpose of this explanation, I have decided to use the most popular aircraft of each manufacturer. Which are the A320 family, and the Boeing 737- 600/700/800/900 series.
The statistics are :
- Airbus A320: 14 Crashes, 0.08 crashes per million flights (out of 119.0 million flights)
- Boeing B737: 11 Crashes, 0.07 crashes per million flights (out of 100.3 million flights)
With this statistic, we can see that when comparing the A320 to the B737, the Airbus has slightly more crashes.
However, there is also another statistic called the FLE or Full Loss Equivalent, which is the fraction of total passengers killed in a plane crash. When looked at in totality, (means all aircraft from both manufacturers) the number looks slightly different.
- Airbus: 35 Crashes in total and an average of 0.686 FLE per crash
- Boeing: 251 Crashes in total and an average of 0.685 FLE per crash
Comparing the 2, the B737 statistics are slightly better by 0.01 crashes per million flights so I guess you could say that Boeing wins this one by a hair?
However, when compared to the Full Loss Event statistics, both companies fared almost exactly the same, which means that in the event of a crash, you are just as likely to survive in either a Boeing or Airbus plane.
Conclusion
An Airbus pilot will definitely be able to fly a Boeing aircraft with the proper type rating. He/she would probably already have the required CPL/IR and will only be required to obtain the specific Boeing type rating.
And remember, both Boeing and Airbus are excellent aircraft manufacturers each with its own strengths and weaknesses.
That said, we truly hope you had fun reading this article as much as we did putting it together!
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