---
title: "Commercial Pilot"
description: "Pilot and navigate the flight of fixed-wing aircraft on nonscheduled air carrier routes, or helicopters. Requires Commercial Pilot certificate. Includes…"
canonical: "https://nuecareer.com/careers/commercial-pilot"
last-updated: "2026-10-09T10:57:55.138Z"
---

# Commercial Pilot

**Category:** Transportation and Material Moving · **SOC code:** 53-2012 · **O\*NET-SOC code:** 53-2012.00

Pilot and navigate the flight of fixed-wing aircraft on nonscheduled air carrier routes, or helicopters. Requires Commercial Pilot certificate. Includes charter pilots with similar certification, and air ambulance and air tour pilots. Excludes regional, national, and international airline pilots.

Also advertised as: Captain; Charter Pilot; Check Airman; Commercial Helicopter Pilot; Commercial Pilot; EMS Helicopter Pilot (Emergency Medical Service Helicopter Pilot); First Officer; Helicopter Pilot.

## At a glance

- **Median annual wage:** $123,220 (BLS OEWS, May 2025)
- **Median hourly wage:** Not published by BLS
- **Wage range (10th–90th percentile):** $58,850 to $266,620, with the middle half between $84,540 and $190,440
- **Total US employment:** 47,630
- **Typical entry education:** Certificate
- **Preparation required:** Some preparation — O\*NET rates this "Job Zone Three: Medium Preparation Needed"
- **Projected growth:** +5.2% over 2025–2035 (BLS EP, 2025–2035)
- **Annual job openings:** 5,200 openings a year
- **AI-resilience score:** 56/100 — 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 47,630 US jobs.

| Percentile | Annual wage |
| --- | --- |
| 10th | $58,850 |
| 25th | $84,540 |
| 50th (median) | $123,220 |
| 75th | $190,440 |
| 90th | $266,620 |
| Mean (average) | $146,080 |

### 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 |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| CT | $232,160 | $224,071 | 460 |
| NJ | $226,710 | $208,364 | 670 |
| NY | $177,430 | $164,407 | 1,070 |
| CA | $165,590 | $149,557 | 4,900 |
| DE | $163,600 | $163,915 | 220 |
| OH | $150,330 | $162,039 | 2,680 |
| GA | $145,100 | $150,686 | 1,020 |
| CO | $139,680 | $135,543 | 1,240 |
| TX | $137,960 | $142,143 | 4,120 |
| VT | $137,810 | $140,683 | 40 |
| PA | $134,030 | $137,365 | 530 |
| ND | $133,010 | $149,518 | 370 |
| MD | $131,210 | $125,011 | 360 |
| KY | $129,990 | $144,179 | 800 |
| WI | $129,860 | $138,009 | 1,090 |

34 more states with published wage data are omitted here. The full table for all 49 states is at https://nuecareer.com/careers/commercial-pilot/salary-by-state, or as JSON at https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/commercial-pilot.

## Outlook

BLS projects employment to move from 50,400 in the 2025–2035 base year to 53,000 by the end of the cycle — a gain of 2,600 jobs, or +5.2%. Faster than average: 5.2% against 3.5% projected for all occupations over the same cycle. About 5,200 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:** Postsecondary nondegree award (BLS Employment Projections).
- **Preparation level:** Some preparation — O\*NET's preparation band for this occupation is "Job Zone Three: Medium Preparation Needed".
- **Related work experience typically required:** None.
- **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 |
| --- | --- |
| Post-Secondary Certificate | 36.4% |
| High School Diploma or the equivalent (such as a GED) | 28.6% |
| Some College Courses | 16.9% |
| Less than a High School Diploma | 15.1% |
| Post-Baccalaureate Certificate | 1.2% |
| Associate's Degree or other 2-year degree | 1.1% |

## What the work involves

- Check aircraft prior to flights to ensure that the engines, controls, instruments, and other systems are functioning properly.
- Order changes in fuel supplies, loads, routes, or schedules to ensure safety of flights.
- Contact control towers for takeoff clearances, arrival instructions, and other information, using radio equipment.
- Plan flights according to government and company regulations, using aeronautical charts and navigation instruments.
- Obtain and review data such as load weights, fuel supplies, weather conditions, and flight schedules to determine flight plans and identify needed changes.
- Choose routes, altitudes, and speeds that will provide the fastest, safest, and smoothest flights.
- Monitor engine operation, fuel consumption, and functioning of aircraft systems during flights.
- Write specified information in flight records, such as flight times, altitudes flown, and fuel consumption.

## Skills and knowledge

### Essential skills

- Monitoring — importance 4.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Critical Thinking — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Listening — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Reading Comprehension — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Speaking — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Learning — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Learning Strategies — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Writing — importance 3.0 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 4.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Operations Monitoring — importance 4.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Judgment and Decision Making — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Complex Problem Solving — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Coordination — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Troubleshooting — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Systems Analysis — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Social Perceptiveness — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Knowledge areas

- Customer and Personal Service — importance 4.2 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- English Language — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Transportation — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Geography — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Public Safety and Security — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Mechanical — importance 3.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Abilities

- Problem Sensitivity — importance 4.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Perceptual Speed — importance 4.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Control Precision — importance 4.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Near Vision — importance 4.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Oral Comprehension — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Oral Expression — importance 4.0 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 Conventional (C), Realistic (R), Enterprising (E).

| Interest area | Score (1–7) |
| --- | --- |
| C — Conventional | 4.82 |
| R — Realistic | 4.79 |
| E — Enterprising | 3.92 |
| S — Social | 2.57 |
| I — Investigative | 2.55 |
| A — Artistic | 1.10 |

### 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 | 88.5 |
| ESTJ | 88.3 |
| ISFJ | 76.8 |
| ESFJ | 69.9 |
| ESTP | 65.7 |

Best-fitting types: ISTJ, ESTJ.

## Related occupations

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

- [Airline Pilot](https://nuecareer.com/careers/airline-pilot) — median $232,140
- [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 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
- [Avionics Technician](https://nuecareer.com/careers/avionics-technician) — median $82,280
- [Captain, Mate, and Pilot of Water Vessels](https://nuecareer.com/careers/captain-mate-and-pilot-of-water-vessels) — median $92,460
- [Ship Engineer](https://nuecareer.com/careers/ship-engineer) — median $109,530
- [Railroad Conductor and Yardmaster](https://nuecareer.com/careers/railroad-conductor-and-yardmaster) — median $78,000

## 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/commercial-pilot