I am starting to look into becoming a pilot because I have always been interested in the field. I am currently employed full time in Law Enforcement and am not able to go without a job/paycheck because I have to support my family. I was wondering if any airlines have a program where they would hire and pay me during flight training.
Adam,
The airlines will pay you during airline training after you’re hired but they will not pay for your initial pilot training (nor will they pay you while you’re building time to meet their minimums). At least not upfront.
The fact is not everyone can or should be a pilot and the airlines aren’t going to risk almost $100k to find out. What they will do is pay you tuition reimbursement for a portion of your training but that’s after you’ve completed it.
Adam
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Adam,
As Adam mentioned, airlines will not pay you for your initial pilot training, but once hired and attend their new hire class they will pay you. Flight training is expensive and most students finance if not some, all of the tuition.
If you feel you have financial questions, you should look into contacting ATP’s finance team to see what they’d recommend if you’re interested in attending ATP.
Brady
Adam,
The initial investment for flight training falls on the student. You can apply for a loan and even add some cost of living expenses to help float you during the program.
Once you’ve completed training successfully you can apply for dozens of tuition reimbursement programs (Chris supplied the link for you). While you build time, the airline you commit to will make payments to your loan so your CFI income and can be used to live off of.
As the others said, then when you start initial training with an airline you will also be paid a base “training” rate until you get out on reserve.
Hannah