Not a silly question at all, I wondered this too.
Flight crew don’t get some giant extra thick passport they lug around. Most use regular passports, but the big difference is how immigration is handled. In many countries, crew are processed under crew or general declaration procedures instead of getting stamped like normal passengers every single time.
A lot of entries are logged electronically or via crew lists submitted by the airline, so stamps aren’t always involved. When stamps are used, it’s way less frequent than you’d expect given how often they fly.
Some crew also carry a CMC (Crew Member Certificate), which helps with immigration formalities and reduces the need for constant stamping. It’s not a passport replacement, but it smooths things out.
They do still renew passports more often than the average person, but nowhere near “new passport every year” levels. The system is basically built to avoid that exact problem.
So yeah, no mega passport… just a lot of backend systems passengers never see.
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