Who’s Who – Get to Know Alex Swan

The world of aviation brings together people from a variety of backgrounds and career experiences. Here at Ameriflight, our employees have unique and interesting stories to tell and we’re here to share them.

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Meet Alex Swan 👋👩‍✈️

“I was born in Belgium and grew up moving around the world until age 12, at which point we settled in Texas. I currently still live in central Texas with my husband, four-year-old daughter, and two doggies. When I’m not working, you can find me spending time with my family. We love being outside (hiking, mountain biking, swimming), are avid travelers, and enjoy camping trips when we can.

Alex after she bought her first airplane and flew it solo for the first time

Growing up, I changed my mind often when it came to my career goals. For many years I wanted to be an Air Force Pilot like my uncle; I’m still not quite sure what led me astray from that goal… I went to college to become an Anthropologist, but ended up becoming a Flight Attendant. I then took a two-year leave from my Flight Attendant job to go back and get my math degree and teaching certification, but the skies were calling and I ended up going back to working as a Flight Attendant!

I first became a Flight Attendant with Continental Airlines (now United Airlines) at age 21. In 2022, I took a leave of absence to attend ATP Flight School where I got all my ratings and spent some time working as a Flight Instructor. When I started at ATP, I heard about the United Aviate program and knew I wanted to be a part of it. I found out that Ameriflight was a partner airline of the program and as soon as I could, I began inquiring and asking questions about Ameriflight. I reached out to several pilots about their lives, work, all the things, and set my goal to come here one day! I’ve since then kept in touch with the pilots that I reached out to. They have all mentored me and helped me get here! As soon as I hit 500 hours, I applied and was fortunately given a job offer. 

Alex and Captain Jennifer Anderson loading cargo into the SAAB340

I was hired at Ameriflight in November of 2022 as a First Officer on the SAAB340 in the ESCS (Charter) Department. A typical day for me starts out with meeting the Captain, discussing our trip (if we have one), weather, and routes. If we haven’t yet been assigned a trip, we go out to preflight the airplane and discuss aircraft stuff.  If we do have a trip, we will fly out to our first location to pick up cargo. Once all the cargo is loaded (in the ESCS Department, we load the cargo💪) we fly to our next destination to drop it off. We are usually on the road Monday – Friday and stay in lots of adorable little towns. I’ve been able to see so many tiny American gems in the months that I’ve been at Ameriflight! One of my favorites was Carrolton, GA where we hiked and explored the town.

One thing I find interesting about my job is learning about weather and navigating around and through it. It’s also interesting to learn and note how the seasoned Captains I fly with assess weather, what risks they are willing to take/not take, etc.

I’ve very much enjoyed my time at Ameriflight so far – learning from seasoned Captains and getting to explore the US. My goal is to one day return to United Airlines as a pilot and fly international routes with my former colleagues!”

Thanks for all that you do at Ameriflight, Alex! We’re proud to have you on our team.

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