Meet Alex and Alan, Kenyan Identical Twins Working as Pilots for the Same US Airline

Kenyan-born identical twin brothers Alex and Alan have hit media headlines after securing jobs at Alaska Airlines in the United States.

On Monday, the airline said Alan was hired shortly after finishing his simulator training and will be based in San Francisco, while his brother Alex will be flying out of Los Angeles.

The two are believed to be the first set of identical twin pilots to work for the airline which is headquartered in SeaTac, Washington.

Alan and Alex, who grew up in Kenya before relocating to California at the age of 13, say their love for aviation goes back to when they were three years old.

As such, the two brothers had frequent plane-spotting excursions with their dad every Sunday after church and also accompanied their mother on every business trip. Alan also recounted a childhood memory of their mom buying them a Microsoft Flight Simulator to help support their passion. 

“After I started playing with the program, that was it. I knew I wanted to do that [fly] for a job,” said Alan.

The brothers say their dream is to fly together as they have been unable to accomplish this due to the complexity of operations in the field.

“We’ve never flown together professionally because we’ve always been on different aircraft. The goal is to have one of us upgrade to captain and be operating the same aircraft so we can fly together,” said Alex, who is a first officer. 

When they are finally able to fly with each other, they want their mom whom they credit as instrumental in fostering their love of aviation, to be in the cabin. The mother has never flown with any of her sons.

“We have to get her on one of our flights,” said Alex.

Alaska Airlines is the sixth-largest airline in North America when measured by fleet size, scheduled passengers carried, and the number of destinations served.