What Do Flight Operations Engineers Do

My name is Jose Godoy and I’ve been working in the airline industry for over 13 years now. I’m currently CCO and Flight Operations Engineering expert at Simpfly, which offers different services for airlines in such a field of expertise.

The main thing one should notice is how broad the airline industry is, as sometimes people think only about pilots and cabin crew: there is so much going on in the “background” in such a dynamic environment.

When we say “Flight Operations”, we are basically talking about all daily tasks required to be performed to keep the aircraft in the air in a safe condition. Examples of that would be the definition of fuel necessary for the flight, the maximum payload (passenger and cargo) allowed and their weight distribution within the aircraft, route definition based on weather conditions, and many many different analysis of possible abnormal operations, so even in the worst case scenarios, the crew is prepared to keep the aircraft flying and able to bring it back to land safely.

All that is done by (really well trained) people on the ground, including Engineers (as myself), Flight Dispatchers, and technical flight crew.

As a Flight Operations Engineer, your typical day may involve checking for changes in airports and routes that your airline flies to and that may require special attention, following up on new regulations, updating flight manuals and calculations as needed, preparing studies and calculations for new destinations or a new aircraft your airline is planning to acquire, as well as providing training to pilots about relevant topics on aircraft systems and its performance.

The Flight Operations Engineering team is known by many as the “center of knowledge” used by flight crew and management as the source of professional aircraft performance and weight & balance advice and accurate information. So this comes with high exposure to so many interesting subjects while having to deal with many different internal and external stakeholders. The environment is so dynamic that maybe there may not even be a typical day during your career in the airline, with constant learning.

At the same time, though, it comes with huge responsibilities, as you would have a key position for the safe operation of the airline, and working hours may include overtime and weekends sometimes: after all, with a constant operation, we never know when an unforeseen event may happen and your expertise would be required to solve the issue.

Pros

• Interface with different areas of the airline (flight dispatch, flight crew, commercial, maintenance, safety, etc.), so you get a broad knowledge of the airline areas.
• Dynamic environment, as new technologies, changes in regulations, new aircraft, and routes, require the flight ops engineer to always be learning and being up-to-date.
• Be the reference for specialized subjects, so be involved in discussions and technical decisions within the airline, such as new routes and new aircraft acquisition.

Cons

• Working hours may involve extra time and weekends, as you are dealing with operations.
• Depending on the airline, basic tasks may become repetitive over time (especially in big teams, as you get responsibility for specific tasks only). But it all depends on team leadership.
• You may become too specialized in a scenario as above, doing always the same tasks (which can be hard to reposition in different areas).
• Growing in the career within the airline may be hard, as most leadership positions in Flight Operations are usually designated to pilots (such as Director of Flight Operations). You can become Senior Flight Ops Engineer, up to Head of Flight Ops Engineering. Further than that is hard if you are not a pilot.