Aave

They fell in love three decades ago. Now they pilot planes together
Aave

On their first flight together, Joel Atkinson and Shelley Atkinson couldn’t contain their excitement. They enthused to the flight attendants. They posed for photos. They told passengers via a pre-flight announcement.

“We made a big deal about it,” Joel tells CNN Travel.

Then, right before take off, Joel and Shelley sat side by side in the flight deck, just the two of them. They’d come full circle, and were about to embark on an exciting new chapter.

“It felt amazing,” Shelley tells CNN Travel.

“As we prepared to take off, I was giddy, euphoric,” says Joel.

Joel and Shelley met as twentysomethings flying jets in the US Air Force. They became fast friends, then, over time, fell in love.

Today, they’ve been married for 27 years and counting. They’ve brought up two kids together. And now they’re both pilots for Southwest Airlines. They regularly fly together, with Joel as captain and Shelley as first officer.

The couple say working together is “amazing.” They treat layovers as “date nights.” They learn from one another’s respective “wisdom and judgment.”

And no, they don’t argue mid-flight.

“People ask us, how does it work, flying together?” says Joel. “We know a few pilot couples and some of them fly together, some of them don’t. I’ve heard people say, ‘Oh I could never fly with my wife or my husband.’”

For Joel and Shelley, working together is seamless – a joy that comes easily to them both.

“We’re best friends,” says Shelley.

“There’s just that unspoken bond,” says Joel.