Boomer Qantas Pilot Breaks The Mould By Not Having A Secret Second Family In San Francisco

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As he approaches his 65th birthday, Captain Howard Holt is preparing to be officially grounded - in accordance with the airline's policy that pilots generally cannot fly international routes for Qantas when they reach their mid-sixties.

This follows impressive tenure flying the same commercial exact route to North America - starting from the age of 24 in 1986

While Howard intends on continuing work as a domestic pilot, he also has plans to spend more time with his, one (1), singular family - which is a fairly impressive claim in itself.

In fact, amongst his baby boomer peers, Howard is a complete anomaly in the sense that he does not have a secret second family in San Francisco or Vancouver that he has juggled flawlessly for his entire career.

Even despite marrying a woman that did not ask many questions about his finances, and despite enjoying nearly three decades without any form of a digital footprint - this veteran of commercial aviation has somehow managed to go against the grain by avoiding the logistics of having a complete other life at the opposite end of his route.

A recent report by the Aviation Lifestyle, Renumeration, Industry Guidelines, Home and Travel Institute (ALRIGHT) has found that close to 85% of post-war commercial airline pilots have a second family somewhere in North America or the UK.

A further 10% have a secret second family in Singapore or Hong Kong - with an overlap of 8% of all Aussie pilots managing to sustain three seperate families that do not know about each other.

2% of surveyed pilots report having upwards for 4 families.

However, at 64-years of age, Howard says he didn't mind spending his downtime alone at the other end.

Sometimes he goes to dinner with his colleagues - sometimes he just reads a book or does some sightseeing.

What he doesn't do is check out the dating scene, before falling in love with a woman from the other side of the planet, and then starting a family with her.

This means Howard has never had to worry about possibly abandoning the second family if Qantas suddenly decided to assign him to another flight corridor, it also means he's never had to live in fear off accidentally referencing the wrong family in casual conversations.

He also hasn't ever had to tip toe around inquisitive adult kids who might stumble across their half siblings on social media.

"Yeah. Each to their own I 'spose" he says.

"I just prefer to get a bit of rest during my lay overs. Maybe go out for a feed with the co-pilot or hosties. But yeah I've never really had the urge to commit bigamy with a Californian beach wedding with zero guests of my own and no cameras"