Pilot Selection in Airline Organizations with the Analytical Hierarchy Process

Abstract

In the aviation sector, where intense rules and competition prevail, safe flight operations are possible with the employment of qualified human resources who can adapt to technology. The aim of this research is to investigate how the most suitable candidate can be recruited by evaluating many criteria together in the pilot recruitment processes, which are of critical importance for aviation enterprises. In this context, the opinions of senior pilots working in the world's top 10 airline organizations were consulted in the study carried out with the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP), which is one of the multi-criteria decision support methods. As a result of the literature research, the recruitment criteria for pilot candidates, which are actively used in the sector, have been listed in the context of the suggestions of experienced captains who also take part in various management positions in the aviation sector. A total of 17 criteria, 3 of which are upper and 14 are sub-criteria determined were weighted with the AHP method. As a result of the analysis, "technical", "non-technical" and "occupational criteria" were listed as the upper criteria according to the degree of importance in terms of local weights.