---
title: "Airline Pilot"
description: "Pilot and navigate the flight of fixed-wing aircraft, usually on scheduled air carrier routes, for the transport of passengers and cargo. Requires…"
canonical: "https://nuecareer.com/careers/airline-pilot"
last-updated: "2026-10-09T10:57:55.138Z"
---

# Airline Pilot

**Category:** Transportation and Material Moving · **SOC code:** 53-2011 · **O\*NET-SOC code:** 53-2011.00

Pilot and navigate the flight of fixed-wing aircraft, usually on scheduled air carrier routes, for the transport of passengers and cargo. Requires Federal Air Transport certificate and rating for specific aircraft type used. Includes regional, national, and international airline pilots and flight instructors of airline pilots.

Also advertised as: Airbus Captain; Airline Captain; Airline Pilot; Captain; Check Airman; Co-Pilot; Commercial Airline Pilot; First Officer (FO).

## At a glance

- **Median annual wage:** $232,140 (BLS OEWS, May 2025)
- **Median hourly wage:** Not published by BLS
- **Wage range (10th–90th percentile):** $106,710 to $463,830, with the middle half between $182,280 and $384,440
- **Total US employment:** 103,560
- **Typical entry education:** Bachelor's
- **Preparation required:** Medium preparation — O\*NET rates this "Job Zone Four: Considerable Preparation Needed"
- **Projected growth:** +8.3% over 2025–2035 (BLS EP, 2025–2035)
- **Annual job openings:** 11,200 openings a year
- **AI-resilience score:** 36/100 — a NueCareer heuristic over O\*NET work activities and context, not a BLS or O\*NET figure

## Pay

National wage distribution, BLS OEWS, May 2025, across 103,560 US jobs.

| Percentile | Annual wage |
| --- | --- |
| 10th | $106,710 |
| 25th | $182,280 |
| 50th (median) | $232,140 |
| 75th | $384,440 |
| 90th | $463,830 |
| Mean (average) | $288,650 |

### Pay by state

The 15 highest-paying states, by median annual wage. The cost-of-living-adjusted column divides the state median by that state's BEA Regional Price Parity, so the columns answer different questions: the first is what the job pays there, the second is what that pay buys there.

| State | Median annual wage | Cost-of-living adjusted | Employment |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| GA | $618,090 | $641,885 | 8,770 |
| ID | $507,640 | $531,594 | 330 |
| MI | $428,570 | $445,420 | Not published by BLS |
| CA | $353,900 | $319,635 | 10,670 |
| KY | $350,950 | $389,257 | 6,260 |
| CO | $307,490 | $298,383 | 5,830 |
| IL | $293,490 | $293,613 | 6,460 |
| NY | $255,240 | $236,506 | 6,900 |
| AK | $232,140 | $226,790 | 1,350 |
| WA | $229,900 | $214,834 | 3,450 |
| AZ | $227,870 | $226,338 | 2,200 |
| FL | $225,020 | $217,591 | 7,760 |
| TX | $215,150 | $221,674 | 10,930 |
| MN | $211,470 | $214,427 | 2,960 |
| OH | $204,170 | $220,072 | 1,550 |

23 more states with published wage data are omitted here. The full table for all 38 states is at https://nuecareer.com/careers/airline-pilot/salary-by-state, or as JSON at https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/airline-pilot.

## Outlook

BLS projects employment to move from 104,600 in the 2025–2035 base year to 113,300 by the end of the cycle — a gain of 8,700 jobs, or +8.3%. Much faster than average: 8.3% against 3.5% projected for all occupations over the same cycle. About 11,200 openings a year are expected on average, counting openings from growth as well as from workers leaving the occupation permanently. Source: BLS EP, 2025–2035.

## How to get in

- **Typical entry education:** Bachelor's degree (BLS Employment Projections).
- **Preparation level:** Medium preparation — O\*NET's preparation band for this occupation is "Job Zone Four: Considerable Preparation Needed".
- **Related work experience typically required:** Less than 5 years.
- **Typical on-the-job training:** Moderate-term on-the-job training.

### Education people in this job actually hold

O\*NET surveys incumbents, so this distribution describes who is in the job today and can differ from the BLS entry requirement above.

| Education level | Share of workers |
| --- | --- |
| Bachelor's Degree | 61.0% |
| High School Diploma or the equivalent (such as a GED) | 18.2% |
| Less than a High School Diploma | 8.0% |
| Associate's Degree or other 2-year degree | 6.3% |
| Post-Secondary Certificate | 5.1% |
| Some College Courses | 1.5% |

## What the work involves

- Use instrumentation to guide flights when visibility is poor.
- Start engines, operate controls, and pilot airplanes to transport passengers, mail, or freight, adhering to flight plans, regulations, and procedures.
- Respond to and report in-flight emergencies and malfunctions.
- Inspect aircraft for defects and malfunctions, according to pre-flight checklists.
- Contact control towers for takeoff clearances, arrival instructions, and other information, using radio equipment.
- Monitor engine operation, fuel consumption, and functioning of aircraft systems during flights.
- Monitor gauges, warning devices, and control panels to verify aircraft performance and to regulate engine speed.
- Steer aircraft along planned routes, using autopilot and flight management computers.

## Skills and knowledge

### Essential skills

- Active Listening — importance 4.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Critical Thinking — importance 4.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Monitoring — importance 4.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Reading Comprehension — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Speaking — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Learning — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Writing — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Mathematics — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Transferable skills

These are the skills that carry into other occupations, and they drive the related-occupation and career-change rankings on this site.

- Operation and Control — importance 4.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Operations Monitoring — importance 4.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Judgment and Decision Making — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Time Management — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Coordination — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Complex Problem Solving — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Social Perceptiveness — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Systems Analysis — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Knowledge areas

- Transportation — importance 4.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- English Language — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Public Safety and Security — importance 3.7 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Mechanical — importance 3.7 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Geography — importance 3.7 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Mathematics — importance 3.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Abilities

- Response Orientation — importance 4.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Problem Sensitivity — importance 4.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Control Precision — importance 4.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Reaction Time — importance 4.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Near Vision — importance 4.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Far Vision — importance 4.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

## Who it suits

O\*NET rates every occupation on the six Holland (RIASEC) interest areas, on a 1–7 scale. This occupation's strongest areas are Realistic (R), Conventional (C), Enterprising (E).

| Interest area | Score (1–7) |
| --- | --- |
| R — Realistic | 4.74 |
| C — Conventional | 4.70 |
| E — Enterprising | 3.81 |
| I — Investigative | 3.15 |
| S — Social | 2.50 |
| A — Artistic | 1.44 |

### Personality fit

These scores are **derived by NueCareer**, not published by any government agency: they are cosine similarities between a personality type's trait profile and this occupation's O\*NET interest and work-style ratings, expressed 0–100. Treat them as a starting point for exploration, not as evidence that a type belongs in a job.

| Type | Fit score (0–100) |
| --- | --- |
| ISTJ | 91.9 |
| ESTJ | 87.4 |
| ISFJ | 74.0 |
| ISTP | 69.0 |
| ESTP | 67.2 |

Best-fitting types: ISTJ, ESTJ.

## Related occupations

O\*NET's primary related occupations, in its own ranked order.

- [Commercial Pilot](https://nuecareer.com/careers/commercial-pilot) — median $123,220
- [Air Traffic Controller](https://nuecareer.com/careers/air-traffic-controller) — median $148,080
- [Airfield Operations Specialist](https://nuecareer.com/careers/airfield-operations-specialist) — median $56,850
- [Aircraft Service Attendant](https://nuecareer.com/careers/aircraft-service-attendant) — median $40,450
- [Captain, Mate, and Pilot of Water Vessels](https://nuecareer.com/careers/captain-mate-and-pilot-of-water-vessels) — median $92,460
- [Aircraft Mechanic](https://nuecareer.com/careers/aircraft-mechanic) — median $79,870
- [Aviation Inspector](https://nuecareer.com/careers/aviation-inspector) — median $92,100
- [Locomotive Engineer](https://nuecareer.com/careers/locomotive-engineer) — median $81,410
- [First-Line Supervisor of Passenger Attendants](https://nuecareer.com/careers/first-line-supervisor-of-passenger-attendants) — median $62,840
- [Aerospace Engineer](https://nuecareer.com/careers/aerospace-engineer) — median $134,960

## Sources

- **O\*NET** — O\*NET 31.0 Database, August 2026. https://www.onetcenter.org/database.html
- **BLS OEWS** — BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025. https://www.bls.gov/oes/
- **BLS EP** — BLS Employment Projections, Table 1.2, 2025–2035. https://www.bls.gov/emp/
- **BLS OOH** — BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook, 2025–2035 edition. https://www.bls.gov/ooh/
- **BEA RPP** — BEA Regional Price Parities by State, 2024. https://www.bea.gov/data/prices-inflation/regional-price-parities-state-and-metro-area

---

This bank includes information from the O\*NET 31.0 Database by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA). Used under the CC BY 4.0 license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). O\*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA. NueCareer has transformed the data by joining it to BLS wage and projection data and deriving facet, personality-fit and AI-resilience scores. BLS and BEA data are public domain (17 U.S.C. §105).

O\*NET content is used under [CC BY 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). How these figures are sourced and derived: https://nuecareer.com/careers/methodology

JSON representation of this page: https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/airline-pilot