Before we go into understanding the relevancy of doing an MBA let us understand what is the role of an airline pilot.The role of an airline pilot is to lead his time, manage his time, be efficient in resource management, make optimum use of the equipment he is given, to plan well and have a contingency plan, to understand finance, be economical, have emotional intelligence, manage stress well, be a good human resource manager, be a good coordinator and more than anything else understand the importance of time management. Knowing what an airline pilot is required to do let us look at what is an MBA. A maters of business management is a person who understands the principles of management which are Planning which involves defining goals, developing strategies to achieve those goals with plans to integrate various activities and roles, the second most important for an MBA is Organizing - that means arranging and structuring the work that is required to be done, the next role of an MBA is Leading which involves having a vision, having skill levels, having compassion, having team spirit, having decision making capability, having courage, communication skills, being firm, arssertive where required and with a focus to achieve the desired goal or target, then the MBA's role is Controlling which means monitoring, comparing and correcting what is happening so that the end result can be achieved

. Having seen the role of both the Pilot and the MBA it is clear that a lot of things that are taught to the MBA are the ones which an Airline Pilot needs or uses to get his work done. As the skills he has for flying the sircraft have to be combined with the skills of management and leadership which are covered in Management it is relevant that a Pilot must do this course. The resp[onsibility comes to a Pilot to do this once he becomes a Commander. Thus in the initial stages it may not be so important but in the later stages when he becomes a commander the MBA or the principles of Management are very relevant to an Airline Pilot. I would not say that an MBA is mandatory and that the management skills cannot be learned in other ways but I would consider that to be able to perform well it would be good to have formally learnt the MBA process as this would give formal education and thus lead to better performance. An MBA to me is very relevant for an Airline Pilot.