Aims: Quality of work life and mental health are among the important factors affecting staff performance in organizations. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of quality of work life on mental health of airline staff.

Materials & Methods: This research is an applied and descriptive survey method that was conducted in one of the airline centers of Naja in Tehran, Iran between September 2018 and May 2019. The statistical population of the study consisted of all Naja air flight staff including 400 pilots and flight engineers 196 of whom were selected by stratified random sampling of the study center. Data were collected using two standard questionnaires of Walton Quality of Work Life and Goldberg and Hiller Mental Health Questionnaire. The Kolmogorov-Smirnov test was used to check the normality of the observations and to investigate the causal relationship between independent and dependent variables and to confirm the whole model, the structural equation modeling and path analysis method was used in Lisrel 8.5 software.

Findings: The component of social cohesion in the work organization with a factor of 0.91 was the most important component of quality of work life and anxiety with a factor of 0.90 was the most important variable of mental health. Independent variables of quality of work life including safe working conditions, ability to develop human abilities, opportunity for permanent growth, social cohesion in work organization, work environment and social dependence of work life were effective with path coefficient above 0.5 on mental health dependent variable of study group.

Conclusion: Improvements in the quality of work life including social cohesion, work environment, social dependence of work life, the possibility of expanding human capabilities, providing permanent growth opportunities and safe working conditions are effective in improving the mental health of airline staff.