How Long Until You Are Making The Big Money As An Airline Pilot

by Devin

Some of this depends on what you consider the “Big Money”, it also depends on what you are willing to do to make the extra money.

For the normal course of career progression as an airline pilot from the beginning to captain at a major airline can easily take ten to twenty years. To rise to the level of senior first office can take half of that, and many people in this level still make very good money.

To shorten the time it takes to make good money as a pilot there are several options. One of the quickest is to do contract work for foreign airlines.

This can pay very well but will generally require you to be out of the country for six months to several years. These jobs are also temporary so do come to an end leaving you searching for a new job.

The high pay of these jobs is often because the job is demanding and may place you flying in parts of the world that are more dangerous than the Continental US.

With that said, something else you should think about on top of pay is quality of life.

As you look around the airline industry, you will find a great number of professional pilots who have made the choice to earn less than the BIG BUCKS for a better lifestyle. They still make good money just not stellar.

Because the airline industry in heavily based on seniority many times it is better to make less but be senior. The big fish in the small pond.

This can allow airline pilots to choice schedules, routes and types of aircraft that better suites their lives.

As an example, by flying a smaller aircraft than I could I am able to have better days off and live where I want. If I were to bid bigger aircraft I would have to go back to working Christmas and spend more time in our hub cities. Not something I relish, but it would pay more.

How long it takes to start making significant money in the airline industry as a pilot depends on many things but if you are up for the challenge, you can be there in a very short period of time.

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