Incredibly high concentration of mustaches in the airline industry?

[Kevin T]

C'mon guys and gals, we've all seen it. I flew 12 times last year and I would estimate 70% of my airline pilots were sporting a 'stache'. I've discussed this with my co-workers and did a Google search and apparently everyone is in agreement. My question is, just why is the airline industry so mustache-friendly? Discuss.

 

[Vision84]

The same can be said to baseball players having sideburns and other little bits of facial hair.

 

[AmericanTemplar]

I know that a lot of companies have strict facial hair policies that don't allow beards or sideburns, but do allow a "well-kept" mustache, but I tend to agree with DP's theory. I used to work at the Hilton here in SF and we would have tons of airline folks come in and a lot of them were gay, although those were mainly the Stewards.

I bet a lot of it has to do with the type of people that choose to be airline captains: perhaps a similar crowd to cops?--people who followed through with their childhood response to the "what do you want to be when you grow up" question." I think that a lot of them take great pleasure in being called "Captain," and mustaches are standard issue to anyone who wants to have an air of authority.

 

[princess bossass]

Tee-hee!

This make me giggle, because I come from an airforce family, and while I have a grandfather, a father, six uncles, and an aunt all former airforce, only three of them went on to fly commerically...

...and they're the only three (other than my aunt, of course), who DON'T have mustaches.

 

[LuckyR]

C'mon guys and gals, we've all seen it. I flew 12 times last year and I would estimate 70% of my airline pilots were sporting a 'stache'. I've discussed this with my co-workers and did a Google search and apparently everyone is in agreement. My question is, just why is the airline industry so mustache-friendly? Discuss.

Is that stat excluding the women pilots? I like the review on the origin of the airline pilot's drawl in The Right Stuff (the book, not the movie).

 

[nyc]

How about the unusual high concentration of staches in the Fire Departments, Police Departments and 70's Porn?

 

[Leelord337]

C'mon guys and gals, we've all seen it. I flew 12 times last year and I would estimate 70% of my airline pilots were sporting a 'stache'. I've discussed this with my co-workers and did a Google search and apparently everyone is in agreement. My question is, just why is the airline industry so mustache-friendly? Discuss.

They're trying to be like they're hero, this guy