How much does a airplane pilot make in a year?

Teiron: How much does a airplane pilot make in a year?
How much does airplain pilots make captain and co captin how does they make?

Answers and Views:

Answer by Cam
https://www.aviationinterviews.com/pilot/airlinepayrates.html

Answer by Ben C
Salaries depend on a lot of things such as type of aircraft, type of service, number of years of experience, and of course the company for which the pilot[s] work, etc….and the range of salaries is huge. For instance, I know of a pilot who has been flying as single crew on a Cessna Caravan (single engine turbine) for Empire (FedEX) for many years and only makes about $ 25K USD per year, while I know a Captain of a two-man crew who flies a privately-owned Cessna Citation X (business jet) for a famous celeb and makes nearly $ 300K per year! Captains in the majors (the big name commercial airline carriers) typically make upwards of $ 100-150K per year, and UPS cargo Captains with 747 and/or 777 type ratings always seem to sit at the top of the salary range. Typically, first officers (particularly with less experience) make considerably less than the captains and the pay is typically abysmal for those first starting out. But there is generally plenty of room for advancement and salary increase as the pilot gains experience.

Answer by deanc1963
Depends – if you’re just starting out at as a flight instructor, maybe 16-25 annually.

After a few months to a few years as a flight instructor (airline industry hiring is very cyclical) you start as a first officer with a regional airline at maybe 19-24k annually. Expect to work every weekend, vacation, and holiday for the next few years.

If you’ve been a first officer around 5-7 years, you should be just about making Captain with your regional airline. Average 6 to 8 years total paid experience (including flight instructor time before you got the airline job). Average then is about 45-55k annually – depending on your experience, how fast your company is expanding, whether you’ve managed to stay continuously employed the whole time (frequent waves of layoffs are a fact of life in the airline industry), and how good your union rules are. You now no longer have to work holidays or crappy shifts. If you stay at the regional airline & become a senior captain, you will top out at about 90k annually.

If you want to make the big money, then you have to try to switch to a major airline (AirTran, Delta, etc). You will start as a first officer again, with very low seniority at the new airline. More holidays and weekend shifts. Make about 30-35k annually, This is after you’ve been flying professionally for around 6 to 8 years, and still owe money on your training loans (cost of flight school to airline transport professional level varies but is usually around about as much as medical school).

After 5-7 more years at the major airline (11-19 total – again depending on industry hiring trends and your union work rules), you might make captain on a mid-size jet. Average is about 15 years total paid experience at that point. 70-80k annually.

After that every 3-5 years, you get bumped up to a bigger airplane & higher pay. These numbers may be less if you get hired during a big wave of industry expansion, those are average times.Promotion is based entirely on seniority, not merit or performance or anything else.

Once you become senior enough to pick up intercontinental routes, the pay bumps dramatically – to about 120k annually. Usually takes 20-25 years if you are careful and lucky.

IF you stay continuously employed (no layoffs) for about 25-30 years, you will bring home somewhere in the mid-100’s. If you manage to keep your medical certificate, don’t get even one DUI or speeding ticket ever, always pass recurrent training (must completely re-qualify every six months) the first time through, and don’t get laid off for about 30-35 years, you’ll bring home 170-190k or so annually.

In recent years, the promotions have come quicker – since airlines are expanding and the Baby Boomer pilots are retiring (forced retirement at age 65, even if you can still pass the physical) in large numbers.

Answer by Rob G
I assume you mean airline pilot. At the regional level (where many pilots are being forced to spend their entire career) expect to make $ 20,000 US dollars to $ 60,000. After 10 years or so, you can get up to $ 80,000 or more, depending on the airline. If you make it to a major airline, expect to drop down to $ 30,000. As a senior major airline pilot, you can get up to $ 100,000 to $ 200,000, sometimes more if you can get on at a place like FedEx (the real fedex, not those feeder comapnies that fedex contracts out to that fly caravans, like someone said above. big big difference.).