Managing occupational stress of commercial airline pilots in Sri Lanka

Abstract

Piloting an aircraft is considered a unique job that needs to manage good psychological and physical health and high workloads. Pilots are considered to be significantly more sensitive to stress level compared to other professions in aviation. Occupational Stress of Pilots affected by various stressors directly related to his job functions, work organisation, and personal life. However, less stidies have been conducted to address these stressors in Sri Lanka. Thus, this study aimed to develop strategies for managing the occupational stressors of commercial airline pilots in Sri Lanka. The mixed approach with qualitative and quantitative data analysis was used in this study. In that, a questionnaire with open and close-ended questions was distributed to the pilots in Sri Lanka who fly aircraft internationally to obtain their experience with occupational stress. Based on the questionnaire’s findings, interviews were conducted with three respective managerial-level officials in the industry and with a retired senior pilot to discuss how identified stressors would be managed. The study revealed that the pilots' in Sri Lanka are facing stressors mainly under physiological, physicaland psychological factors and the recommendations are given based on the identified stressors. New stress factors were also identified from the study, which can be considered as knowledge contribution to exsisitng literaure. Regualr delay due to inefficiency of the airline operators, poor salary scale, salaries going below the industry standards, job insecurity, unfair rostering of pilots and incompetent mix of crew are few of them. This study's findings significantly highlight many stressors directly or indirectly related to the current economic situation of Sri Lanka and a few airline and pilot function-related issues. While presenting the recommendations, the study emphasised the urgent need for the intervention of airline companies in Sri Lanka to take mitigate actions to minimise pilot stress with possible government interventions. The outcome of this study also significantly highlighted and justified the need for a case-by-case approach for pilot stress-related studies.