Flying airliners for a living is no longer a way to get stinking rich, but it is still a job that can leave you in a comfortable financial position over the long term if you play your cards right.
There are, however, various challenges and hurdles to overcome along the way. Arguably, the largest of which, due to the significant costs currently involved, is the very high barrier to entry.
Across the following two articles, we’ll explore the finances behind becoming an airline pilot. This month, we’ll examine the various paths in the industry and how they operate from a cost perspective, along with my recommendations for those considering a career in the industry. Next month, we’ll take a deep dive into pilot salaries, how they work, and how much pilots actually get paid. Stay tuned!
Before we can consider how much pilots earn, we must first consider the costs involved in entering the industry. As many aspiring pilots know, even training in a light aircraft at your local flying club is not a cheap game. The cost of an hours flying lesson in a small 2-seater aircraft sits at around £250/$340. If you want to go beyond just a few lessons and gain a PPL or CPL, you’ll need substantial savings, with the cheapest way to get those licences currently costing around £15,000 and £55,000 respectively.
Suppose your eventual goal is to become an airline pilot, and you’re considering signing up for a fully integrated ATPL course at a large flight school (the fastest way into the job). In this case, you’re going to need extremely substantial savings or an enormous bank loan. Large training providers now offer various self-funded courses for aspiring pilots, which I detail in my blog post here, but they’re not cheap. For example, a two-year ‘integrated’ ATPL or MPL course offered by CAE, designed to take you from zero flight hours to the front seat of a jet, currently comes with a price tag of around £110,000/$150,000.
There’s no denying that’s a potentially life-changing amount of money. For the vast majority of us who don’t have that sort of money to spare, specialist banks out there will loan you the money specifically for your flight training course. The downside? The interest rate is usually pretty high, and they’ll want to secure it against your, or more likely, your parents’ house. There’s nothing like a bit of pressure on a new trainee, right?
Multiple decades ago, paying to become an airline pilot wasn’t a thing. Airlines used to offer real sponsorships, whereby so long as the individual being put through training was going to work for that airline, all flight training costs were covered. Companies like BOAC would actually pay their cadet pilots a salary (albeit a low one) on top of covering all their expenses while they trained.
Exactly where this all changed, I’m not too sure, although I’d hazard a guess that it had something to do with airline accountants realising people want to do the job so badly they’d be willing to pay the training costs themselves. Now it’s become normal for anyone wishing to enter the industry to stump up a six-figure sum, before they’ve even stepped foot on the flight deck of a commercial airliner to see if they enjoy the day-to-day. It sounds a bit insane when we put it that way.
You’ll be pleased to hear there are a few other ways into the industry don’t necessarily require you to fund the full cost. Let’s take a look at them.
Some airlines offer ‘sponsored’ schemes, which was my route into the industry. On a sponsored scheme, you’ll be tagged with an airline before you start your training, meaning they’re essentially guaranteeing you a job with them once you’ve finished (as much of a guarantee as you can get in aviation), which is a huge benefit. To join a sponsored scheme, you must pass a selection process with a flight school and then undergo an additional round of selection with the airline.
An important note: there’s a big difference between a ‘sponsored’ scheme and a ‘fully funded’ one. With a sponsored scheme, it remains your responsibility to initially cover the training costs. The airline then reimburses you for the costs over the first few years of employment.
The gotcha, as I found out at the end of my training, to my dismay, is that the airline puts you on a reduced salary for the first few years. This salary is lower than that of other pilots of equal rank in the same airline. The airline will then pay you the difference between your lower salary and a normal pilot salary, as a ‘loan repayment’ each month.
Whilst there is a tax-efficient aspect to this for the trainee, overall, I think strong marketing tactics are at play here, and these schemes aren’t exactly as advertised. The lesson here is to ensure you fully understand how the financial side of any ‘sponsored’ course works.
Another path into the industry is via a fully funded training scheme. These courses are exactly what they say on the tin; trainees don’t have to stump up a penny. Everything is paid for by the airline. Whilst you won’t receive a salary during training, you will receive allowances to cover meals, etc.
We haven’t seen courses like this for a long time, but thankfully, they’re making a comeback, with airlines such as British Airways, Jet2, Tui and Air Lingus offering them. There are suggestions that the reason they’ve reintroduced fully funded courses is due to a looming pilot shortage and a lack of pilots being able to afford training. I can’t comment on the accuracy of this, but either way, these courses are a great benefit to the industry.
There are, however, a few key considerations to keep in mind when it comes to fully funded courses. Firstly, although you don’t incur any upfront costs, you’ll be on a reduced salary for the first few years of employment. This is so the airline can recoup some of the expenses it’s invested in you. You’ll also be bonded to the airline, usually for around five years. If you wish to leave within the first five years, you’ll be asked to pay back a portion of the training costs.
You’ll have limited flexibility in other areas, too. The airline will usually decide which flight school to send you to, so you won’t have the choice of where you’ll complete your training. You’ll also be at the airline’s mercy when it comes to basing. While the above may not be issues if you’re young, free and single, they may be factors to consider if you have a family or need to train or be based close to home.
As you can imagine, these courses are also incredibly competitive. British Airways received over 20,000 applications for just 100 places in their fully funded Speedbird Academy course. The selection process for these courses is exceptionally challenging. To give yourself the best chance of passing selection, grab a copy of my bestselling book ‘How to Become an Airline Pilot’, which guides you through each part of the selection process and equips you with the best tools possible. I’m also writing in-depth articles analysing each fully funded scheme, so make sure you sign up for email alerts at the bottom of this page to be notified when I release new articles. The Jet2FlightPath fully funded scheme analysis article can be read here.
Another route to the airlines, although a more long-winded one, is joining the military. In the UK, the Air Force, Army, and Navy all train and employ pilots. One of the many benefits of this route is that they’ll pay you to learn to fly!
Not only will you be quids in, even after years of flight training, but you’ll also forge great bonds and enjoy epic adventures along this journey. The camaraderie you’ll find in the military will be incomparable to anywhere else.
There are also a few things to consider with this route, however. The selection process will be very tough. There will also be a ‘minimum term of service’ that you must complete; this typically ranges from 8 to 12 years for a short commission. This minimum term is to prevent the military from investing all this money in you, only for you to leave. It costs the RAF an estimated £5 million to train a fast jet pilot, so this policy is understandable.
When you do eventually leave the military once you’ve completed your service, you likely won’t have the correct ratings to fly commercial airliners. However, transitioning from the military into the airlines is a well-trodden path, with numerous airlines and training providers offering specific military conversion courses.
With the military, you’ll also be away from home a lot. A more obvious risk is that you are in the military for one overarching reason: to protect your country. This includes being prepared to go to war, which brings with it unique risks, and you need to know if that’s a risk you want to bear.
It’s worth noting that you’re also told which type of aircraft you’ll be flying in the military; it’s not your choice. If you join hoping to qualify on fixed-wing aircraft, you may end up being trained on helicopters, as that’s what the force needs at that time. Unfortunately, there’s not much you can do to change this, but I have heard they’re as accommodating as possible. Overall, the military is an excellent option for individuals looking to forge close connections, earn a salary while learning to fly, and experience adventures worldwide. You will, however, need great discipline and be prepared to sacrifice a lot for all the above opportunities.
Aside from the above paths, many great companies and charities, such as the Air League, provide sponsorships and scholarships on a smaller scale. These can range from helping fund part of your PPL to full licence scholarships. The best way to stay current with these updates is to check places like FTN’s sponsorship and scholarships section regularly.
Another cost consideration is a type rating. To fly a commercial airliner, you must be qualified to operate each specific aircraft type. This qualification is known as a ‘type rating’, and it’s gained in addition to your pilot licence. Once you hold a type rating, you’ll need to pass an exam each year to keep the rating valid.
A full initial type rating for an Airbus A320 typically costs around £30,000. The course will be a mix of time spent in a classroom and simulators over a few weeks, culminating in a final checkride on the real aircraft, which is known as base training.
When applying for a job, airlines will often require you to have a type rating for the aircraft you’re applying to fly. If you’re ‘tagged’ by an airline during flight school, this type rating cost is usually factored into the six-figure sum initially agreed upon.
Occasionally, airlines will recruit ‘non-type-rated’ pilots. In this scenario, they’ll usually ‘bond’ you for the cost of the type rating; i.e. they pay for it, but you’ll end up paying it back over a few years out of your pay.
This means that if I, as an A320 captain, want to move jobs and fly for an airline that operates a Boeing, it will cost me around £30,000 to make that move. Industries in which you have to pay six figures to enter are pretty rare. Jobs in which you have to pay a house deposit to move companies in the same industry are even rarer!
A final factor to consider when looking at the cost of pilot training is what’s known at the ‘opportunity cost’. Whether your self funding or have been lucky enough to get on either a sponsored of fully funded course, you’re still going to be devoting around two years of your time to the training. The opportunity cost to consider, is essentially all the other ways in which you could be spending that period of time if you weren’t using it for pilot training.
If it’s going to spent doing a low-paying job that you don’t really enjoy anyway, then you’re not giving up much and joining pilot training makes sense. If, however, committing to the training would mean turning down other opportunities which could either be a once in a lifetime offer, or could open the door to something you want to do more than being a pilot, then this is definitely a sacrifice you should think carefully about. The training on an integrated course is intense and doesn’t allow much time for anything outside of the training syllabus. For those with other commitments or who wish to break the course up, you can choose a modular course. They takes longer, and are more expensive, but often allow you to complete pilot training whilst managing to maintain a job or other major commitment along side it.
For those wanting to enter the industry but feeling overwhelmed by the high costs quoted above, don’t worry – you won’t be alone.
My recommendation for you would be to conduct as much research as possible into the job to determine if it’s a role you’d truly enjoy. The Amazon bestseller ‘Airline Captain: A Day in the Life’ should help give you a real warts-and-all understanding of what the daily life of airline pilots is like.
If, after reading that book, you feel it’s a life you’d want, I’d apply for a fully funded pilot training scheme. Treat the first time round as a practice run, although you should still thoroughly prepare for that selection process. I’d also apply to more than one scheme, and even if you don’t get through the first time, apply again when the scheme next opens. If you have no luck after a few attempts, it could be time to start looking down the self-funded route, or joining a ‘sponsored’ airline course. I’ve got a feeling that over the coming years, more fully funded options will become available; however, if you know this is the only career you want and you wish to start now, it may be best to take the leap rather than waiting.
So, airline pilots have to invest a significant amount of money to enter the industry, but what do we gain financially from it? Stay tuned for the next article, where we’ll take a deep dive into airline pilot salaries.
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