Expert: D. Norkus - 4/5/2007

Question
I was thinking of going to the Unniversity of North Dakota to become a pilot. I have seen so many different kinds of pay rates. At UND I was told would get out of college and make $20 an hour for the first year then work my way up to about $60,000 a year in 10 years and be 50 years old by the time I make $100,000. In the occupational outlook hand book it says the median salary for airline pilots is $130,000. I looked at the airline web sites and it didn't help. I was hoping you tell me how long it wold take to work my way up to a captain of a big jet and make the 130,000. Also could I be hired right our of school or would I have to find a way to build up flight hours.

Answer
Kyle

Airline pilot pay is something the general public often has a lot of misconceptions about and they think everyone makes a ton of money. This is especially true post 9/11 when the entire career field has taken substantial pay cuts and compensation just is not what it used to be. Here is an explanation from my own careers website...

That said:
According to the Air Line Pilots Association (most pilots union), their average major* airline member Captain is 50 years old, with 18 years seniority and makes $182,000 a year. A non-major airline Captain is 41 years old with 10 years of seniority and makes $70,000 a year.

The average ALPA First Officer member at a major airline is 43 years old with 10 years of seniority and makes $121,000 per year, while an ALPA non major First Officer is age 35 with 3 years of service and makes $33,000.

*A major airline is a carrier with more than a billion in sales annually. American, Delta, Northwest, United, Continental, US Airways, Southwest, Alaska (and even several 'regional' carriers) are considered majors by that definition. However, not all major carriers pilots are members of the ALPA union, notably AA & SWA who have their own in house unions.

Factors affecting pilot pay:
~ Time with the company (seniority)
~ Aircraft flown
~ Whether they are a Captain or First Officer (seat)
~ The hours in their monthly schedule
~ The payscale at their specific airline

A pilots pay is figured upon the hourly rate for their seat and their equipment based upon the pay grade for their seniority. Each company also has a set 'minimum guarantee' flight hour pay in their pilot contract. This is generally about 75 hours per month but varies slightly by airline. (A few majors guarantee is only 65!) However, in no case will the pilot earn less than the 'minimum guarantee'. They may fly less than 75 actual flight hours, but they will still be paid for the 75 per their guarantee. If they get a flight schedule that is blocked for more flight hours than the minimum guarantee, they will then get paid for the greater amount of time flown instead, plus per diem. Flight crew make from $1-3 per hour in 'per diem' for every hour they are away from their domicile on a trip to cover expenses. This generally adds a few hundred dollars to their pay check.

A general comparison of starting monthly First Officer pay by airline*:
~ AMERICAN - $2,240
~ CONTINENTAL - $2,500
~ DELTA - $3,640
~ FED EX - $3,700
~ NORTHWEST - $2,574
~ SOUTHWEST - $3,744
~ UNITED - $1,950
~ US AIRWAYS - $1,875
~ UPS - $2,187
*all without per diem, based on minimum monthly guarantee, first year pay in smallest fleet type

Here is a Captain pay comparison* at 12 years of seniority, by the largest type in fleet (best paying):
~ American 777 - $12,352
~ Continental 777 - $14,688
~ Delta 777 - $14,040
~ Fed EX widebody $14,874
~ Northwest 747 - $14,586
~ Southwest 737 - $14,196
~ United 747 - $11,570
~ US Airways A330 $11,520
~ UPS (all a/c) $15,390

(*all without per diem, based on minimum monthly guarantee, 12 pay in largest fleet type)

To find out what the specific base pay is for each major, cargo or charter operator by seat & seniority visit-

http://www.AirlinePilotPay.com

Regarding UND:
While schools like UND, ERAU and other "big name" aviation universities are fine schools, they do charge a substantial sum of the privilege of getting trained and educated there. Do consider the more affordable ways to go as well if you want to purse this career. (Non-aviation degree, local flight training.) Airlines do not care if you have an aviation degree! They simply check the box that you have one regardless of the subject. What matters is your flight experience. Often students that graduate from Big Name Av U. have only a few hundred hours of flight time, which is not enough to meet most regional airlines minimum requirement of 1,000 flight hours just to apply. They still must go out and get a time building job in piston single engine airplanes for a year or two to get hired and move up the pilot food chain (unless they also did this while in school). All that after spending $80-100K on a 4 year degree plus flight training to get to a job that starts out at $20K? Good luck with that student loan! It's hard to even meet living expenses on a new hires salary. Having massive student loan debt over your head as well will not do you any favors. A pilot I work with spent almost $100K on such a degree and still flight instructed for two years to get a regional job. Still drowning in debt, they said they would not do that route over again if given the choice.

How long would it take to make captain making $130K?
No one could say. Upgrade time varies from airline to airline. Even if they are upgrading pilots to captain today with 5 years of seniority, it doesn't mean that trend will last. An economic downturn in the industry will squash that growth trend and it could jump to 10 years almost overnight. That is what happened at my airline. Upgrade was 3 years and post 9/11 it jumped up to 7 years as the airline shrank, parked aircraft and laid off.

BTW, getting laid of is another reason a non-aviation dege- or at least a double major- is a good idea. If you ever get laid off, an aviation degree doesn't mean a hill of beans when you are seeking temporary non-aviation employment while awaiting recall. Read more on that here-
http://www.jetcareers.com/content/view/22/44/

from this highly informative site http://www.jetcareers.com

My site- http://www.geocities.com/av8trxx99/FAQ.html

Good Luck
Dottie