How to Become an Airline Pilot
There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being an airline pilot. For example, did you know that they make an average of $48.65 an hour? That's $101,191 a year!
Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 6% and produce 7,000 job opportunities across the U.S.
What Does an Airline Pilot Do
There are certain skills that many airline pilots have in order to accomplish their responsibilities. By taking a look through resumes, we were able to narrow down the most common skills for a person in this position. We discovered that a lot of resumes listed communication skills, problem-solving skills and quick reaction time.
How To Become an Airline Pilot
If you're interested in becoming an airline pilot, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 69.8% of airline pilots have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 14.6% of airline pilots have master's degrees. Even though most airline pilots have a college degree, it's possible to become one with only a high school degree or GED.
Choosing the right major is always an important step when researching how to become an airline pilot. When we researched the most common majors for an airline pilot, we found that they most commonly earn bachelor's degree degrees or master's degree degrees. Other degrees that we often see on airline pilot resumes include associate degree degrees or high school diploma degrees.
You may find that experience in other jobs will help you become an airline pilot. In fact, many airline pilot jobs require experience in a role such as flight instructor. Meanwhile, many airline pilots also have previous career experience in roles such as pilot or captain.
Airline Pilot Career Paths
In addition to switching up your job search, it might prove helpful to look at a career path for your specific job. Now, what's a career path you ask? Well, it's practically a map that shows how you might advance from one job title to another. Our career paths are especially detailed with salary changes. So, for example, if you started out with the role of flight instructor you might progress to a role such as first officer eventually. Later on in your career, you could end up with the title chief pilot.
Average Salary for an Airline Pilot
What Am I Worth?
Top Colleges for Airline Pilots
1. SUNY Farmingdale
Farmingdale, NY • Private
2. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Champaign, IL • Private
3. Stanford University
Stanford, CA • Private
4. Baylor University
Waco, TX • Private
5. University of Minnesota - Crookston
Crookston, MN • Private
6. University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, PA • Private
7. Bowling Green State University
Bowling Green, OH • Private
8. Northwestern University
Evanston, IL • Private
9. Siena Heights University
Adrian, MI • Private
10. Arizona State University at the Polytechnic Campus
Mesa, AZ • Private
Top Skills For an Airline Pilot
The skills section on your resume can be almost as important as the experience section, so you want it to be an accurate portrayal of what you can do. Luckily, we've found all of the skills you'll need so even if you don't have these skills yet, you know what you need to work on. Out of all the resumes we looked through, 22.0% of airline pilots listed aircraft systems on their resume, but soft skills such as communication skills and problem-solving skills are important as well.
Choose From 10+ Customizable Airline Pilot Resume templates
Zippia allows you to choose from different easy-to-use Airline Pilot templates, and provides you with expert advice. Using the templates, you can rest assured that the structure and format of your Airline Pilot resume is top notch. Choose a template with the colors, fonts & text sizes that are appropriate for your industry.
Airline Pilot Demographics
Airline Pilot Gender Distribution
After extensive research and analysis, Zippia's data science team found that:
- Among airline pilots, 7.6% of them are women, while 92.4% are men.
- The most common race/ethnicity among airline pilots is White, which makes up 86.7% of all airline pilots.
- The most common foreign language among airline pilots is French at 50.0%.
Online Courses For Airline Pilot That You May Like
Introduction to flight training, Aircraft Structure, Systems and Flight Instruments...
More than one century after the Wright brothers' first flight, the flight still defy our intuition. You will learn here how to name the different parts of the airplane and how to describe and quantify its geometry. For that, we need now to share a precise vocabulary to describe the airplane's movement and attitude in space, and a refresher on basic general mechanic principles. You will remind how Newton's 2nd law allows you to determine what force must be applied on an apple - or on an airplane,...
Master your flying skills & the DJI Go flight modes like Tapfly, Active Track, Waypoints, Point of interest & more!...
Best States For an Airline Pilot
Some places are better than others when it comes to starting a career as an airline pilot. The best states for people in this position are Oregon, California, Washington, and Idaho. Airline pilots make the most in Oregon with an average salary of $151,485. Whereas in California and Washington, they would average $149,737 and $141,122, respectively. While airline pilots would only make an average of $136,759 in Idaho, you would still make more there than in the rest of the country. We determined these as the best states based on job availability and pay. By finding the median salary, cost of living, and using the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Location Quotient, we narrowed down our list of states to these four.
1. Oregon
$151,485
Avg. Salary
2. Idaho
$136,759
Avg. Salary
3. Nevada
$117,505
Avg. Salary
How Do Airline Pilot Rate Their Jobs?
Top Airline Pilot Employers
Most Common Employers For Airline Pilot
| Rank | Company | Average Salary | Hourly Rate | Job Openings |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Allegheny Airlines Inc | $112,437 | $54.06 | 3 |
| 2 | Prosperity Bank | $110,386 | $53.07 | 5 |
| 3 | UPS | $104,992 | $50.48 | 3 |
| 4 | Ata Airlines | $101,201 | $48.65 | 3 |
| 5 | American Airlines | $99,537 | $47.85 | 14 |
| 6 | Trans States Holdings | $96,702 | $46.49 | 8 |
| 7 | SkyWest Airlines | $92,794 | $44.61 | 204 |
| 8 | United | $92,792 | $44.61 | 11 |
| 9 | Republic Airways Holdings | $92,218 | $44.34 | 7 |
| 10 | Southwest Airlines | $91,579 | $44.03 | 3 |