Pilots out of their office: Aleksandrs Nebilica

Aleksandrs Nebilica (36), First Officer on Airbus A220-300, from Latvia

HOBBY

Aleksandrs Nebilica got his first mobile phone when he was 13. Back then, there were no smart phones yet, nor built-in cameras. Videos were shot by cameras on video cassettes, and TikTok was still far off in the future. Photos and videos from the flight deck were almost unheard of. But fast-forward 20+ years, and this aspect of the world has changed completely.

     Aleksandrs now runs a TikTok account where he shares videos from his life at work. He had Facebook and Instagram accounts, but when TikTok appeared and his friends all began talking about it, he decided to take a look. His first videos got several hundred views. But then a couple of years ago, when Aleksandrs was still flying for his previous company, they happened to fly through cumulonimbus clouds en route from Chisinau to Bucharest. He filmed it and posted the video.

     ‘On our way back to Chisinau, it already had more than 100,000 views. Even the captain was surprised at how many views it had had,’ Aleksandrs laughs. ‘The flight from Bucharest to Chisinau is not long.’ The video has since had more than six million views.

     Aleksandrs’ TikTok account now has more than 100,000 followers. ‘I enjoy capturing interesting moments from my life at work and showing them to others, and I like adding some humour as well,’ he says. ‘Now I post two or three times a week. It used to be two or three times a day.’

HOW IT ALL BEGAN

Aleksandrs became a pilot six years ago, after receiving his pilot training in Lithuania. He began working for a Lithuanian airline, and then for an Estonian one, but two years ago he decided to apply for a vacancy advertised by airBaltic. ‘I wanted to live in Latvia, at home,’ he says.

     Before becoming a pilot, Aleksandrs had a very different career, working for an international construction company in sales. However, at the age of 25, he decided to change something in his life and… became a pilot.

     This choice was largely influenced by conversations with the father of a friend, who had once been an astronaut. ‘He told me a lot about what it was like to be in space, and I think that was a big influence on me as a kid,’ Aleksandrs remembers. ‘But I didn’t become an astronaut; becoming a pilot was more realistic and achievable.’

     After Aleksandrs was hired by airBaltic, his father gave him a small model of an Airbus A220-300 as a token of good luck. Currently, what Aleksandrs appreciates most about his job is the opportunity to explore ever more new destinations, and he fully agrees that the windows of an aircraft offer the best office views.

      ‘What I also like about being a pilot is that you’re always progressing and improving,’ he says. ‘The work and training, having to take simulator tests twice a year – it keeps you in great shape. There’s always the opportunity to develop and improve yourself.’