Regional pilot hours

Airline Pilot Questions & Answers
1

Hello, I was wondering on average how many hours do regional pilots usually have before moving on to the majors.

Thanks

2

Mrunal,

It’s generally more a matter of years of service vs hours but lets work it out. Average upgrade at a Regional is say 3yrs and the another 2-3 before you get picked up. So let’s say that’s 5-6yrs. The average Regional pilot flies 80hrs/mos (except for vacation and training mos) so that’s say 900hr/yr X 5-6yrs gives us about 5000hrs, which sounds about right.

Adam

3

Mrunal,

I would say that the average pilot moving from the regionals to the majors has between 5,000 and 10,000 hours of flight time, but that is really just a guess based on what I have seen over the years.

Chris

4

Mrunal,

Here at SkyWest, from what I hear, it’s about 5-7 years on average to move on to mainline. Of course there are exceptions to that of the occasional FO that got hired at Delta after 2 years, and the 15 year CA’s that haven’t been called yet, but the average of what I am hearing is right around 5-7 years.

Yarden

5

Thanks guys!