Moser Represents Perfect Example of Unorthodox Airline Pilot Career

Veteran aviator started his journey by getting into the industry through the side door.

Les Abend

Tuesday, October 07, 2025 at 08:00 AM ET

Verified

Edited By:

Travis Tingle

Rob Moser took a quite circuitous route to establishing himself in an airline pilot career. [Courtesy: Rob Moser]

Key Takeaways:

Rob Moser's unconventional aviation career began as a Delta reservation agent in 1972, where he notably debunked Eastern Airlines' claims against Delta during a Civil Aeronautics Board hearing.
Despite initial discouragement and a highly competitive internal selection process, Moser persevered to become a Delta pilot in 1977, one of only three in-house employees to do so from a large applicant pool.
He had an extensive and varied career, flying numerous aircraft types for Delta, serving as a check airman, and later working internationally and as a simulator instructor/examiner after an early retirement from Delta.
Moser's story exemplifies courage, perseverance, and tenacity in achieving an aviation career, and he now mentors aspiring professional pilots.

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In a prederegulation court hearing with the Civil Aeronautics Board, Frank Borman, the CEO of Eastern Airlines and former Apollo 8 commander on the first lunar orbit mission, was taking Delta Air Lines to task in the early 1970s in an effort to sway the judge from awarding the airline nonstop authority from Boston to Atlanta. Eastern was claiming that Delta was siphoning customers away from its established nonstop route.

As part of its argument, Borman’s legal team claimed that passengers weren’t being given the option of Eastern’s direct flight when calling Delta reservations. An experienced reservation sales agent testifying suggested the judge simply call the reservation number. Without prompting, the reservations agent that answered the judge’s call offered Eastern Airlines’ option of a nonstop flight first and then Delta’s connection option. Borman wiped the egg off his face.