Captain who flies 757 and 737

I had a 11 day hol in Palma a couple of weeks back (yes i know you wish you could fly away too) and flew with Thompson, on the return flight we flew on a 757-200, i spoke to the pilots and was rather surprised to find that the Captain the next day was flying the 737, apparently Thompson are the first airline in the UK to have a dual fleet type rating, i just wondered if anyone else know/knew about pilots flying two different type of jet airliners at the same time as i thought it wasnt allowed.

  • by the way Thomspon have 737-300/500/800’s, i also wondered what you think the Captain would fly, whether it would be the classic or next-gen 737, i personally think the classics as they have a same type cockpit layout as the 757.

Possibly overseas, but highly unlikely that the FAA would ever sign off on something like that in the USA.

The most common dual qualification scenario in the USA is with the 757/767 fleet types and with the Embraer 135/140/145 types. All these aircraft groups have more similarities than there are differences. There are many differences between the 757 and 737 though and I highly doubt an airline in the USA could get that provision in their ops specs.

It’s not terribly uncommon in the charter/corporate world for a pilot to switch back and forth between aircraft types. Airlines are a different story though.

I believe the A320 family is also common rated.

the A320 is the most common for commonality between aircraft as a pilot could fly the A320 one day and the A330 the next day, when i was talking to the Captain he did say his First Officer was certified to fly the 757 and 767 though the Captain wasn’t, unfortunately i didnt get much more info as i was holding up the coach that was taking everyone back to the terminal, i did get a few angry stares, especially as it was nearly 2am and everyone wanted to get home!

The A330 is not part of the A318/319/320/321 family type rating.

The A330/A340 is common rated. From what I’ve read, the A330 is an A340 with 2 less engines. Looking at it another way, the A330 is an A340 with 2 additional engines.

It is perfectly legal in the US to be rated and fly two or more different types of jet airliners. Years ago I was flying the 727 and the MD-80. I was what was known as “dual qualified.” I still had a checkride every six months, but alternate airplanes each time. Several years later, the company policy changed, and that was generally disallowed. But there was not and still is no regulation that prohibits the practice.

For 5-6 years SWA crews operated the 737-200 -300 -500 and -700. There was a big difference from the -200 to -700.

The A330 is not part of the A318/319/320/321 family type rating.

Actually i believe it is, as Airtours/Mytravel whatever they are called now do the cross crew qualification and as they have only A330’s A320’s and A321’s i believe it is so, if anyone has watched ITVV’s Airtours A330-200 flightdeck video the Captain explains his first officer is rated to fly both the A320 and A330

He may be qualified in both, but that doesnt mean that the A330 is in the same family as the others. IIRC, there’s one type rating that allows the crew to fly any of the -318,-319, -320, or -321 and another different type rating for the 330.