when will I be available to have a good salary and for my loan to start paying off satisfactorily? How long should I make the effort from the start of the carreer as pilot? because working as an instructor would only be enough to pay my basic expenses? but as I understand I’m not done there yet? Should I start paying my loan when an airline hires me?
Yamileth,
“Good salary” is a subjective term. I know people who think $50k a year is a good salary, others consider that minimum wage. Please visit this thread in our FAQ section for information on pilot pay as well as many other commonly asked questions.
Adam
Yamileth,
I’ll give you a basic timeline to give you a better idea.
From zero time, you spend 7 months in the program. During that time you are pulling from your loan to cover the cost of the program and making zero income.
Upon program completion, if offered a CFI job with ATP, you will begin instructing. From here, you get paid per flight/sim/ground hour. The more students you have, the more flying you do and the more money you make. Generally speaking most instructors average about 75 hours a month and I believe the current pay scale is $18/hr. You’re an independent contractor so you get every cent of what you earn but don’t forget to put a little away each pay check because you will still owe taxes on your income at years end. If you’re not quite making ends meat, I highly encourage you to look in to tuition reimbursement programs. Most regionals have a program set up. The basics, the regional of your choosing pays towards your loan each month. In exchange, upon reaching 1500 hrs you will flow in to one of their classes. Don’t make the decision to hastily as you will be committing yourself to that airline or be forced to pay the money back. However, if you make a decision early on where you want to go, the extra help paying off your loan can make a big difference on your finances.
Once you make it to the regionals, pay is generally about $40-$50k a year. Better than CFI pay but still tight as you are back on your own paying for your loan. Capt pay is about $80/90k.
Check out the link below with more info about loan repayment over your time at ATP:
-Hannah
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