This Valentine’s Day, we’re celebrating not just love, but the incredible opportunities aviation provides. At Avion Express, we know that being a pilot is more than just a career—it’s a way of life. For those who dedicate themselves to this profession, few things are more rewarding than getting to share that journey with someone who truly understands it. For our pilots at Avion Express, it’s the rare privilege of navigating both their careers and life side by side. Meet our heroes of today, A320 Pilots Carlota and Luis.
What inspired each of you to pursue a career as pilots, and how did your paths cross in this shared journey?
Luis: Since I was a child, I always dreamed of piloting anything that could fly, planes, spaceships, anything. As I grew older, it felt just like that, a dream. But just before university, it resurfaced, this time within reach. Although it took me a few years to bring it to life, I finally started flight school. I chose the modular course, which took longer than the integrated one, but it turned out to be the perfect timing to meet the love of my life.
Carlota: I began studying Aviation Management at university, which led to an internship at Air Europa and three years as Deputy Training Manager at Air Europa Express. Working in the training department sparked a passion for the cockpit—something I had never imagined for myself. But after seeing after seeing several close examples, I knew it was my turn. To balance flight school with work, I stayed in Mallorca, the only place offering that option at the time. It turned out to be my great luck because there I was about to meet my future husband.
Can you share how the airline supports your lifestyle as a pilot couple?
The unlikely chance of being in the same airline became a reality after big efforts and dedication. Now, we enjoy something that once seemed impossible: a married roster. While studying to get our pilot license, everyone told us that once finishing school it would be very difficult to be assigned together. Now, after a year and a half of living our dream of traveling the world together we can’t be more grateful for the opportunity of having our dream job and being based together. For us, this is a unique advantage, despite being that far away from our families, being together brings us closer to home.
What’s been your most exciting destination or experience flying for an ACMI operation?
Curiously, we both share the same anecdote – one flight we will never forget. We are from Mallorca and when our first roster was published, we couldn’t believe that our first training flight was for both of us with the same destination: PMI. We have never landed at the airport that brings us closest to home and if felt like a gift.
Carlota recalls that her flight took place on October the 1st 2023 with the same captain who shared her first two simulator sessions at the company, making the experience even more special. At the approach, waiting for her at the spotter point there were her parents ready to take photos and videos, seeing her daughter landing an A320 for the first time.
The first ATC voice she could hear when arriving was her communications professor who was an air traffic controller there. After the workaround, the first passenger to be on board the flight back to Vilnius was Luis who was going to start with the same training and days later flying the same route himself.
If we need to highlight a base, it’s Santiago de Chile, where we enjoyed layovers in Brazil, Argentina and we were able to visit amazing places from Chile that we really recommend.
