Q: Why should I consider becoming an airline pilot? Please tell me some real facts. —Russ
A: I recall a feature I wrote titled, “Three Wise Men” (Career Pilot, July 2007 Flight Training). Three retired airline veterans, who each spent more than two decades at a major airline, provided their own sentiments about their careers. One common thread bound them all together: the love of flight.
Not one single aviator stated that their primary career goal had been to put food on the table for their families, acquire an upperclass lifestyle, or secure a six-figure paycheck. They simply had a passion for flying, and an airline career allowed them to satisfy that. Getting a paycheck was important, but secondary.
As any student of commercial aviation knows, there is a tremendous entry fee to join the exclusive club of paid flyers. A quality aviation college or academy will siphon anywhere from $50,000 to $150,000 from one’s bank account. Once graduating with a wallet full of FAA certificates and ratings, look for a first-year salary of about $22,000. By year five, that might increase to $50,000 annually, whether flying a regional jet or corporate aircraft. All the while, imagine trying to retire the debt at a monthly payment of $700 to $1,000.
So, why do they do it? Ask them. Here’s what they will say, guaranteed: “I just want to fly.” It’s that internalized emotion that causes airmen to subdue rational financial thinking and press on with a plan to satisfy the flying urge, while hoping that—in about seven to 10 years—a $125,000 or higher annual paycheck and a goodly amount of days off will materialize.
Frankly, it is the unattractive financial realities of aviation that have contributed to the present state of affairs in the industry: the pilot shortage. Fewer people will think through and embrace the thought of even learning to fly on the private pilot level. To a financial realist, it is absurd to blow two weeks’ worth of grocery money or a car payment to blast around the traffic pattern for a couple of hours or truck on down to the $300 hamburger, yet alone fork over $375,000 for a new single-engine airplane when that will buy you a beachfront condo.
So, again, it boils down to an affair with flying. Thankfully, there are more than 70,000 airline pilots and probably twice that in other forms of commercial flying who have managed to quench their flying thirst first and still make a living. Otherwise, we’d all be taking the bus.
Related Articles
