How Much Do Pilots Make per Flight (2026 Data)

A senior captain at a large US airline earns about $932¹ for an average domestic flight of 2.4 hours², and the first officer in the right seat about $636¹. Stretch the same career to a 10-hour widebody trip and the captain's figure climbs to about $4,837¹, while a new regional first officer earns roughly $176¹ for a typical regional hop. None of this is a fee per trip: airline pilots are paid an hourly contract rate for every flight hour, set by seat, aircraft and years of service.³

Over a year that adds up to a median of $232,140⁴ for US airline pilots in May 2025, 124.1%¹ more than in 2007 before inflation. This page breaks the pay down by airline, route, seat and seniority, by state and city, and compares it with other flying jobs. Among the surprises: airline pilots in the Atlanta area report a median of $618,090⁵ a year, private pilots may not be paid at all for carrying passengers⁶, and active flight engineer certificates have fallen 42.5%¹ since 2016.

Pay for one flight, by airline

Airline pilot pay starts from an hourly rate. At the top of the narrowbody scale, the 12th year of service, a Delta or United captain on a Boeing 737-800 earns $388.27³ per flight hour from January 1, 2026, and a first officer $265.19³. The average completed US domestic flight in 2025 lasted 2.40² block hours from gate to gate, across 6,879,484² flights. Multiply the two and a senior captain earns $931.85¹ for that average flight and a senior first officer $636.46¹.

Each airline flies a different network, so its average flight differs too. Using each carrier's own 2025 average and its own 12-year rate, a senior captain earns from $835.85¹ per flight at Southwest, whose average trip lasts 2.12 hours, to $1,311.33¹ at Alaska, where it lasts 3.49 hours.² United's captain earns $1,164.81 and JetBlue's $1,139.30, both on flights of three hours or more.

These figures show what the hourly rate is worth over one flight; they are not a line on a payslip. Contracts pay the greater of scheduled and actual block time, add minimum credit for short duty days and trips, and guarantee a monthly minimum, so a pilot can be credited with more hours than were flown.³ Per diem, profit sharing and retirement contributions come on top. Most pilots are also not at the top of the scale: at Delta, American and United a first officer's share of captain pay is 53.5%³ in year 2.

Flight length moves the number most. The four regional airlines in the data flew the shortest average flights in 2025: 1.70 hours at SkyWest, 1.75 at PSA, 1.78 at Envoy and 1.88 at Republic.² At the other end, Alaska's average flight lasted 3.49² hours and JetBlue's 3.17 hours.

From the average hop to the longest domestic legs, the same hourly rate produces very different pay per trip.

Pay per flight on busy US routes

On the 12 busy routes below, the average block time in 2025 ranged from 1.45 hours² between Los Angeles and San Francisco to 5.78 hours² between Newark and San Francisco. At the 12-year narrowbody captain rate of $388.27 an hour, that is $562.99¹ for the short hop and $2,244.20¹ for the transcontinental flight; a senior first officer earns $384.53 and $1,532.80. Flights between Hawaii and Los Angeles or San Francisco last more than 5 hours and pay a captain more than $2,000 at that rate.

Long-haul flying pays more per hour as well as per trip. A 12-year widebody captain at Delta earns $483.74³ an hour in 2026, so a 10-hour international flight is worth about $4,837.40¹ to the captain and $3,304.40¹ to the first officer. At the American and United widebody rate scheduled for 2027, $498.25, the captain's figure reaches $4,982.50. The 10-hour trip is an illustration, not a measured average: the flight data behind the other figures cover US domestic flights only.²

How airline pay rates are set

Pay rates come from each airline's contract with its pilots, and they turn on three dials: seat, aircraft size and years of service.³ At the top of the narrowbody scale on January 1, 2026, captain rates at six large airlines sat within a band of $359.40³ to $394.27³ an hour. Southwest paid the most and JetBlue the least; JetBlue's A320 rate has not changed since August 1, 2024, while its contract is in negotiation.

Scheduled raises keep moving the numbers. Southwest's 12-year captain rate is set to rise from $379.10 in 2025 to $423.37³ on January 1, 2028, an increase of 11.7%¹. Widebody captains at Delta rose 4.0%¹ to $483.74 in 2026, and American and United widebody captains are scheduled to reach $498.25³ in 2027. Cargo pilots follow different scales: at UPS a 15-year widebody captain is paid $401.01³ an hour from September 1, 2026, and at FedEx $335.56³, the latest agreed rate while a new contract is in negotiation, a gap of $65.45 an hour.

Aircraft size matters within one airline as well. In 2025 Delta paid a 12-year captain $465.13³ an hour on its A350, A330 and 767-400ER group and $335.95³ on the Boeing 717, the lowest-paid group on its scale. In 2026 the widebody premium over the 737-800 rate is $95.47¹ an hour for a Delta captain.

The seat is the other big divider. At year 12, a first officer at Delta, American and United is paid 68.3%³ of captain pay, at Southwest 70.0% and on the cargo airlines' widebody scale 71.6%. The gap is widest early in a career: in year 2 the first officer's share runs from 50.0%³ at Hawaiian to 62.1% on the cargo widebody scale.

Guarantees, per diem and profit sharing

Hourly rates are only part of the package. Each contract guarantees a minimum number of paid hours a month for a pilot holding a regular schedule: 65³ hours at Delta, 70 at United and JetBlue, 75 at Alaska and Hawaiian, and 77 hours 28 minutes at Southwest. At the 12-year narrowbody rate, Delta's 65-hour guarantee is worth at least $25,237.55¹ a month to a captain. Contracts also set minimum days off: 16 in a 31-day bid period at Southwest, 13 at Delta and Alaska, and 10 at American.³

Per diem is paid for every hour a pilot is away from base, not per flight. On domestic trips in 2025 it ranged from $2.00³ an hour at Hawaiian, for inter-island flying, to $3.41³ at American, and on international trips it reached $4.10 at UPS. International flying also carries a pay override on top of the hourly rate, from $5.00 an hour for a Hawaiian captain to $10.00 at FedEx, which pays $24.00³ an hour on ultra-long-range trips of more than 16 hours.

Profit sharing can add far more than per diem, but it swings with airline earnings. Delta's pilots received 21.46%³ of their pay in profit sharing for 2015 and 10.04%³ for 2024; for 2020, Alaska was the only one of the six airlines in the table to pay out, 4.98%.³ At Delta, American and United the pool is 10% of pre-tax income up to $2.5 billion and 20% above that, shared among eligible employees; FedEx and UPS pilots have no profit sharing in their contracts.³

Starting out: regional first officers

Pay at the start of an airline career is far lower. First-year first officers earn $106.66⁷ an hour at Endeavor, $102⁸ at Piedmont and $99.00⁹ at Envoy. At Envoy's rate, a first officer earns $176.22¹ for the airline's average 2025 flight of 1.78 hours, and a 75-hour reserve guarantee is worth $7,425¹ a month.

The first step up is steep. At Envoy the rate jumps from $99.00 in year 1 to $161.25⁹ in year 2, a rise of 62.9%¹, the same figure as its third-year captain rate; captains start at $161.25 at Piedmont⁸ and earn $170.66 in their third year at Endeavor.⁷ Even so, a 12-year widebody captain rate at Delta in 2026 is 4.89¹ times Envoy's first-year rate.

So what does all that flying add up to in a year?

What pilots earn in a year

Across all employers, US airline pilots, copilots and flight engineers earned a median of $232,140⁴ a year in May 2025, about $19,345¹ a month before tax. The mean was $288,650⁴, $56,510 higher, because the best-paid pilots pull the average up: the top 10% earned at least $463,830, 4.35¹ times the 10th-percentile wage of $106,710. Commercial pilots, who fly charters, air taxis, air ambulances, tours and other unscheduled flights, earned a median of $123,220⁴.

These annual figures are straight-time pay and leave out per diem, profit sharing and most bonuses.⁴ No official hourly wage is published for either job, so every hourly figure on this page is a contract rate per flight hour.

Pay has risen fast since 2020. The airline pilot median climbed from $160,970 in 2020 to $202,180 in 2021, a jump of 25.6%¹, and kept rising each year after that, for a total of 44.2%¹ over 2020-2025. From $103,590 in 2007 it rose 124.1%¹. These official estimates rest on a rolling three-year sample and are not designed for year-to-year comparison, so a single year's move says little on its own.⁴

The trend line on the chart is a straight-line fit over 2007-2025, our calculation and not a forecast. It averages a flat 2010s and a steep 2020s, so it runs below the recent pace. Commercial pilots' pay rose more steadily, from $49,830¹⁰ in 2003 to $123,220 in 2025, up 147.3%¹; the airline pilot median is now 1.88¹ times the commercial one.

After inflation the rise is smaller. In 2025 dollars, the airline pilot median went from $160,846¹ in 2007 to $232,140 in 2025, 44.3%¹ more. It peaked at $240,213¹ in 2021 and is 3.4%¹ below that peak. Commercial pilots' real median rose from $87,187 in 2003 to $123,220 in 2025.¹¹

The number of airline pilot jobs grew from 79,770¹⁰ in May 2003 to 103,560⁴ in May 2025, up 29.8%¹, with a dip to 66,270 in 2012. Commercial pilot jobs more than doubled, from 19,980 to 47,630.¹⁰ Official projections expect airline and commercial pilot jobs combined to grow 7%¹² from 2025 to 2035, with about 16,400 openings a year.

Where pilots earn the most

Pay depends heavily on where a pilot is based. Of the 38¹³ states with a published median for airline pilots, Georgia's is the highest at $618,090¹³ and Missouri's the lowest at $97,680¹³. Georgia's figure is the published median: it equals the state's published 75th percentile and sits above the national 90th percentile of $463,830. Most of the state's airline pilots are based at one major hub, with the Atlanta metro area accounting for 8,700⁵ of Georgia's 8,770 airline pilot jobs, or 99.2%¹.

Idaho ($507,640) and Michigan ($428,570) also report medians far above the national figure, each at or near its own 90th percentile; several smaller states share identical medians ($143,580 in four states), so state figures are best read as rough.¹³

Most airline pilots work in a handful of states. Texas had the most, 10,930¹³, followed by California with 10,670 and Georgia with 8,770. Relative to the size of each state's workforce, Alaska (6.21 times the national share) and Kentucky (4.7 times, with 6,260 airline pilots) have the highest concentrations of these jobs.¹³

By metro area, New York has the most airline pilot jobs, 10,030⁵, with a median of $335,270. Atlanta follows with 8,700 and the highest published metro median, $618,090⁵, 2.66¹ times the national median. Charlotte, the 16th-largest metro for these jobs, reports a median of $151,540.⁵

Where pilots live is a different map. Florida has the most active airline transport pilot certificate holders, 25,538¹⁴, ahead of Texas with 20,490 and California with 12,980, yet Florida's airline pilot median of $225,020¹³ is well below Georgia's.

Who employs pilots

Scheduled airlines employ 87.7%¹ of all airline pilots: 90,840 of 103,560 in May 2025. Couriers and express delivery companies employ 5,730, the federal government 2,720 and support activities for air transportation 2,570.¹⁵

Pay differs by employer too. Airline pilots at couriers and express delivery companies earned the highest median, $334,930¹⁵, above the $293,240 at scheduled airlines; those working for the federal government earned $141,140.

How much do commercial pilots make per flight?

No official hourly wage is published for commercial pilots either⁴, so their pay per flight cannot be worked out the way airline contract pay can, and the annual median is the closest guide. Commercial pilots on charter and other nonscheduled flights earned a median of $133,150¹⁵ a year in May 2025, $160,090¹ less than airline pilots at scheduled airlines.

How much do life flight pilots make?

Commercial pilots employed by ambulance services, the air-ambulance pilots of life-flight programs, earned a median of $100,330¹⁵ a year in May 2025, about $8,361¹ a month; 4,900¹⁵ held such jobs.

How much do flight instructors make?

Flight instructors have no wage series of their own: they are counted among commercial pilots, and flight schools are part of technical and trade schools. Commercial pilots employed by those schools, 6,010¹⁵ of them, earned a median of $93,650¹⁵ a year, about $7,804¹ a month. The figure covers every commercial pilot at those schools, not instructors alone.

Other flying jobs

How much do flight controllers make?

Air traffic controllers, who direct flights from the ground, earned a median of $148,080⁴ a year in May 2025, or $71.19 an hour, 63.8%¹ of the airline pilot median. Their median has risen from $96,260¹⁰ in 2003.

Other airline jobs pay far less than flying. At scheduled airlines in May 2025, aircraft mechanics earned a median of $98,300¹⁵, flight attendants $63,570, dispatchers other than police, fire and ambulance dispatchers $57,540 and airfield operations specialists $52,330, against $293,240 for airline pilots.¹⁵

How much do flight engineers make?

Flight engineers have no separate wage figure: they are counted together with airline pilots and copilots, whose median is $232,140.⁴ The number of active flight engineer certificates keeps falling, from 35,761 in 2016 to 20,573¹⁴ in 2025, down 42.5%. From 2016 on, holders of only a paper certificate are no longer counted as active, so earlier years are not comparable.¹⁴

Private and military pilots

How much do private pilots make per flight?

Nothing. A private pilot may not act as pilot in command of an aircraft carrying passengers or property for compensation or hire, and when flying passengers must pay at least a pro rata share of the flight's operating expenses: fuel, oil, airport expenditures and rental fees.⁶ The main exception is a flight that is only incidental to the pilot's business or job and carries no passengers or property for hire.

Military flying brings its own incentive pay. Federal law caps aviation incentive pay for officers at $1,500¹⁶ a month, or $18,000¹ a year, and the aviation bonus at $50,000¹⁶ for each 12 months of obligated service; in December 2022 the caps were raised from $1,000 and $35,000.¹⁶

Flight-time limits and the pilot pipeline

Federal rules cap how many hours an airline pilot can fly. A passenger airline pilot may log no more than 100 flight hours in any 672 consecutive hours and 1,000¹⁷ in any 365 consecutive days. At the 2026 widebody captain rate, 1,000 flight hours would be worth $483,740¹; paid credit can exceed hours flown, so this is not a cap on annual pay.

The pool of qualified pilots has grown. Active airline transport pilot certificates rose from 141,596¹⁴ in 2000 to 181,742¹⁴ in 2025, up 28.4%¹. Those certificates are the license an airline captain or first officer must hold.

Flight instructor certificates grew faster still, 79.8%¹ since 2000 and 39.4% since 2016, to 145,538¹⁴ in 2025, while active flight engineer certificates kept shrinking.

Airline transport pilots are getting older. Their average age rose from 46.0 in 2001 to 50.2¹⁴ in 2025, 4.2¹ years more, while the average for all pilots fell from 44.0 to 42.1.

Women hold a small but growing share of airline transport pilot certificates: 10,376¹⁴ in 2025, 5.7%¹ of the total, up from 4,411, or 3.1%, in 2000. The share is higher among flight instructor certificates, 9.6%¹, with 13,963 held by women.

What the numbers mean for a pilot career

For someone weighing the job, the figures describe a steep ladder. A new regional first officer starts near $99 an hour, a 12-year narrowbody captain earns $388.27 and a 12-year widebody captain $483.74 in 2026³, so the hourly rate at the top of the ladder is about five times the rate at the bottom. Pay per flight follows the same ladder and the length of the flight.

Around that ladder, monthly guarantees protect a floor of paid hours, profit sharing adds a layer that can vanish in a bad year, as it did for five of the six airlines in 2020³, and local medians range from $97,680 in Missouri to $618,090 in Georgia.¹³

Conclusions

1. Seat and seniority move pay per flight more than the airline does. On the same 2.4-hour flight, a senior captain earns $931.85¹ and a senior first officer $636.46, while top narrowbody captain rates at six airlines sit within $359.40³ to $394.27 an hour.
2. Longer flights, not better-paying airlines, explain most per-flight gaps. Alaska's $1,311.33¹ captain figure comes from 3.49-hour average flights at one of the lower rates, $375.74, while Southwest pays the highest narrowbody rate, $394.27, but flies 2.12-hour trips worth $835.85.³
3. The steepest raises come early. Envoy's first-officer rate rises 62.9%¹ from year 1 to year 2 ($99.00 to $161.25), and a 12-year widebody captain rate is 4.89 times a year-1 regional rate.⁹
4. Pilot pay outran inflation, but the post-2021 gains have flattened in real terms. The real median rose 44.3%¹ from 2007 to 2025, yet in 2025 dollars it is 3.4% below its 2021 peak.¹¹
5. Where pilots live is not where the highest medians are paid. Florida has the most airline transport pilots, 25,538¹⁴, but its airline pilot median of $225,020 is far below the $618,090 published for Georgia, where 99.2% of airline pilot jobs sit in the Atlanta area.¹³