Starting out, doing chartering and tiny regional runs, pilots make terrible money. Like, less than some fast food places. This may have changed recently with the shortage, admittedly, I haven't kept up.
Believe it or not, many pilot instructors also make surprisingly little money.
Apparently, it's one of those careers where you grind with hopes of getting called up to the big guys - the big airlines or delivery companies.
There are ebbs and flows in that. Sometimes there's too many pilots, and you get stuck down. I think we're in a shortage now, which is good for them.
"What's the difference between a large pizza and a regional carrier first officer job?"
"The pizza can feed a family of four."
That used to be an accurate joke, but now even the regionals are starting to have to pay somewhat more competitively and, in many cases, offer 5-figure signing bonuses to join for a multi-year period. If I end up retiring from tech in my mid-50s, I may even go seek an airline job. (I have the 1500 hours already, so I could reasonably quickly walk onto a regional.)
A friend was interested in this. Bachelors degree not required any more.
It costs $93k-$115k, $900/mo housing, and food not included for 13 months at an AZ, Texas, or Florida school to get all certifications to fly to become a pilot instructor.
Spend 2 years as a pilot instructor (somewhere) at a paid $17.25-$20 per hour to get your 1500 required hours. Housing? Multi-engine certified for 100hrs gets an $860/mo bonus.
4.5 years as a regional airline pilot:
2 years first officer paid at $90k/yr minimum
2.5+ years as captain paid at $135k minimum (75 hours per month guaranteed for both)
7.5 years total to become a major airline first officer.
$74k to $120k per year for first officer minimum pay. Can pick up trips also if available.
13.5 years total to become a captain (6years as a first officer). $285k salary minimum.
20 years total and 6 years of seniority as captain: $337k
66% make it to retirement at 65 due to medical requirements.
36% are able to work at that age as they are considering extending the age to 67 domestically due to a pilot shortage.
One carrier tried to reduce hours to 750 to become a regional pilot but that failed.
It does not need to be done in the US. To get an FAA unrestricted ATP certificate, you need to build on top of other FAA certs, but you can use experience gained worldwide to satisfy all but a trivial amount of specifically called out instruction hours.
If a pilot comes in with enough experience, it's a quick process to convert their foreign certs to FAA certs (which usually involves checkrides).
Starting out, doing chartering and tiny regional runs, pilots make terrible money. Like, less than some fast food places. This may have changed recently with the shortage, admittedly, I haven't kept up.
Believe it or not, many pilot instructors also make surprisingly little money.
Apparently, it's one of those careers where you grind with hopes of getting called up to the big guys - the big airlines or delivery companies.
There are ebbs and flows in that. Sometimes there's too many pilots, and you get stuck down. I think we're in a shortage now, which is good for them.