What's with all the pilots?

[SwizzAir]

So, my airline went bust, costs got away from me, and I took my eye off the ball.

Starting up again, and conscious of costs, I now have six "very large" aircraft, and am employing 162 very large aircraft pilots

Why do six very large aircraft require 162 very large aircraft pilots? That's 27 very large aircraft pilots per every very large aircraft aircraft.

Seems bizarre to me.

[schro]

It's a function of math with some assumptions and game balance mixed in.

Think about pilot rest requirements - usually they are limited to something like 80-100 hours of flying each month, no more than 12 at a time and some other number per trip. Yet, these planes are often scheduled to fly 20 hours/day (or 600 hours/month). Right off the bat, that's 12 pilots to cover 600 hours of flying if they all got 100 hours. However it never works out like that with the various shift time requirements vs length of flights, so 27 can be in the ballpark of realistic.

Generally in this game, the number of staff is not a very important variable to consider. The main thing is that for any very large plane they've got to be earning a good bit of revenue to be viable.

[SwizzAir]

I don't think I've ever had such a detailed response to a question in such short a time, in my near 20 years of asking silly questions on various forums anywhere.

Kudos to you, sir!

This wasn't a complaint in any way, just a curiosity, it seemed an awful lot for so few planes. And given that I'm about to be served a 'first bankruptcy warning', was, well, curious!

This time, though, it will be fine, I'm sure, once the RI picks up

Thanks, schro.

[Cardinal]

While we're at it, show me a real-world airline that has 1540 people employed to research Route Strategies 

...and how being 5 people short in that department leads to massive delays across your network 

[Stanley]

When I stared moving flights from E195STD to E195-E2, I noticed a small pilot number increase as well as crew increase.
I was flying exactly the same schedule, and both aircrafts need the same number of pilot and crew. The only difference is that E195-E2 carries more passengers.
(I use manual personnel management, so I notice that.)

Any explanation to the pilot/crew number? Looks like passenger count has an impact?

[Andre090904]

Might be for customer service and things like that?

[gazzz0x2z]

nah, it's average range. I also have a slight increase switching from MD88s to C919s. 'cause average range of the family is slightly superior. IIRC, E2s have longer range than their predecessors, too.

[MikeS]

my efficient IL-62s require a mere 45 pilots each .... with their cozy 5 man cockpit crew set-up

[Tha_Ape]

As Gazzz said. Longer ranges / higher MTOWs require more pilots.