Hello everyone, I’m looking to begin flight training with ATP at the beginning of the year. Throughout talking with people in the industry and seeing forums and just general research, is the high salary really true? With the legacy airlines, starting around 100k then after a few years increasing to 170-200k?
Hi John,
This website has airline profiles that include hiring and pay information.
https://www.airlinepilotcentral.com/airlines
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John,
Starting pay at most Majors is in the upper $80-90 range and yes, depending on how much you’re willing to fly, career progression and good fortune, you could (should?) be close to $200k fairly quickly. Senior Capts at the legacies are well over $400k but that can take a while.
Thing to remember is nothing it’s guaranteed. Bust too many checkrides, have an incident or behave badly and you could never make it to that level. If the economy tanks, another pandemic, 9/11, etc etc etc and it could take much longer but yes, right now, things are good.
Adam
John,
I just saw this graphic on CNBC:
Keep in mind that that info if for major airlines, not regionals.
I wrote an article about how airline pilots get paid. You can check it out here:
Here is another page on the topic:
That’s a nice new webpage/article that ATP put together! I wonder if there’s a lot of algorithms and formulas inputted into the values to get the ranges of finances. I’d be interested to see the blueprint to that page, being a numbers guy. 
Brady
John,
It’s absolutely true! 2022-2024 the industry saw sweeping contract negotiations and record pay raises. Use it as a motivating tool because the first two years are the hardest but it will be worth it.
Hannah
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