When we say Quality of Life (QoL), we are often referring to time home vs. away, scheduling predictability, job security, and positive work environment. So lets compare the two in this manner first.

Airlines

The airlines are huge corporations with a ton of money coming in and in today’s economy, they have created such a need for their services they are not going away.  This is a form of security for pilots who are hired by a major, because they can count on the company being around for many years.  Additionally, the airline pilots have Unions backing them that are constantly negotiating for better pay and benefits.  Because of this, pilots generally have a greater job security and job satisfaction knowing they are not held at the whim of the company leaderships decisions.  

There is precedent that airlines are not that great at reacting to economic changes, and if you happen to be hired just before a company needs to downsize, you could be up for a furlough and be out of a job pretty quickly.  The Covid-19 pandemic was a great example of this and many pilots found themselves without a paycheck for a while.  This is just an acknowledgement that the airlines are not great all of the time.

The airlines fly all kinds of routes and depending on the type of aircraft and route you fly, your schedule and time away will be different.  The typical CONUS trips are 3-4 days away at a time and some companies you may even be home each night after your flight.  This kind of schedule may not be that hard on the family and when you are off, you are off.  

There is no flight planning or coordinating with users on your part.  You arrive to the aircraft with everything provided and once your day is complete, you leave.  If you fly internationally, you will probably be gone for more days at a time, but then you also get more days off at home as a benefit.  

Generally, you will spend more days at home in a month then you will be on the road, but many veterans have stated they were away more often as an airline pilot, then they were in the military.  This is a tradeoff for the pay and benefits.  

The scheduling can be tricky at times and depending on the company, you may not know your schedule more then a month out.  Additionally, once scheduled, things generally don’t change unless you initiate it.  The greater your seniority, the greater your schedule flexibility is, and the more you get to pick and choose the flights you want to fly, on the days you want to work.

Corporate / Charter

The job security at a corporate or charter company can be hit or miss based on the economy.  If you fly a corporate jet and the company decides to downsize, your job could be gone overnight.  There are generally no unions to back you up if there are issues and no one to help save your job from corporate leadership’s on the spot decisions.  I am not saying this occurs very often, but it is more likely to occur here then in the airlines.

The scheduling can go both ways in this world.  You could be a part of a company that hands you a schedule and you know when you are working months in advance, or you could be on the hook to fly whenever the CEO calls you.  The typical Charter operation generally offers schedules such as 12/10, 8/6, or 7/7 (on duty/off duty).  When you are on duty, there is a good chance you could be away from home the entire time living out of hotels for a week or more.  

Then there are also operations that will have you home every night, or corporations where you hardly fly at all, but still make great money. There are those unicorn jobs that pay a lot and fly very little with great leadership, but as expected, those are hard to come by.

Job satisfaction is person dependent, but many pilots love this lifestyle because of the change in environment, the people they get to meet, the greater control of the operations and the ever increasing quality of life that the companies are producing.  

A lot of pilots here love their jobs and generally only consider moving to the airlines due to the retirement potential, but outside of that, many would say they are very happy where they are at.  They don’t have to see the inside of airport terminals constantly like Airline pilots and they get to avoid the TSA line.  

When they fly their clients somewhere, they may also get to stay and experience the location  for some time before moving on to the next location, which is a perk that many Airline pilots may not experience often.