How much are airline pilots paid?

Ranks explained

If you're familiar with air travel you've no doubt seen that pilots hold a certain number of stripes upon their shoulders and jacket sleeves. These are referred to as epaulettes and the number of stripes typically dictates a pilots seniority within an airline. Traditionally it can be said that one stripe equates to a Second Officer (SO), a second stripe meaning First Officer (FO), the third identifying a Senior First Officer (SFO) and the final sought after stripe being reserved for the Captain. A captain occupies the left hand seat, is the most senior ranking member of crew aboard the aircraft, and holds the ultimate legal responsibility for the safety of a given flight.

Just to confuse things slightly, many airlines do things outside of the tradition. For example IndiGo Airlines use epaulettes similar to what looks like that of admiralty in a Navy and my airline have both Second Officers and First Officers wearing two-stripes. Ultimately the only thing that separates an SO, FO and SFO is experience and with experience comes knowledge of operating ones' aircraft. Airlines pay a premium for this experience in the form of a larger renumeration package. At my airline it can be said that an SFO is a Captain-ready pilot pending completion of all relevant interviews, command courses and associated training. 

Rank Progression

How long it takes to progress from one rank to the next and indeed the ranks used at a given airline is entirely dependant on the employer. It's usually based on a combination of flying hours and time in service. Of course, it's not always possible to promote somebody as soon as they reach given promotion criteria. Reasons for this are vast although would include internal policy, company growth and the base you work in. It has been known for pilots to re-locate to a different base to seek their captaincy due to growth in that bases market. i.e. London Gatwick would typically grow faster year on year than Newcastle might.

As already mentioned, at my airline the differentiator between Second Officer and First Officer is purely contractual. In the day to day operation pilots of both ranks wear two stripes upon their shoulders and carry out the exact same responsibilities. A cadet entrant, as I am, remains in the role of Second Officer until they have completed at least one full year of service and obtained around 1200 hours. Given the legal maximum of 900 flying hours per year, a fully utilised full-time pilot might expect to receive their First Officer contract towards the mid-point of their second year at the company. 

Rank Pay

For the purposes of this post I have taken pay figures from the Pilot Jobs Network website which are highly regarded for accurate pilot-contributed salary information. I've used easyJet's UK contract to produce the below table but accept no responsibility for the accuracy of pay data. The figures below presume the following:

• 2019 Personal Allowance
• 2019 National Insurance Brackets
• No Student Loan Repayment
• 2% Personal Pension Contribution

N.B. As a cadet-entrant Second Officer graduating into easyJet from L3Harris Airline Academy or CAE, the annual gross figure is less than the above quoted due to the existence of a trainee bond, however what is effectively an increased tax-free allowance provides a larger NET pay of £300 - £400 per month. For an example of this in practice read my L3Harris training security bond post.

What is sector pay?

From the section above we already know a pilot is paid a basic salary based on rank but now let's consider two pilots of the same rank. We'll call them Pilot A and Pilot B. Pilot A worked 40 sectors (flights) in a given month whereas Pilot B won the jackpot in the roster-lottery and worked a total of 15 sectors in that same month. All of Pilot B's sectors were shorter days and Pilot A worked a larger number of four sector days. From this basic comparison we can see that Pilot A had the longer month and, arguably, worked much harder. Is that fair? I guess the answer to that is subjective, but the unions over the years didn't think so. Here's where sector pay comes in.

Sector pay exists to incentivise working longer days and it is therefore a payment on top of basic salary for each flight flown. Just like pilot ranks, sector pay varies from airline to airline too. Some pay this as a fixed amount per flight, others pay a percentage of a fixed amount depending on the length of a flight and some even pay an hourly rate. Either way, the pilot working the longer days therefore gets paid more for that given day than the pilot working a short two sector domestic.

Here's an example of two days for each of the above pilots:

• Pilot A starts work at 6am on a trip to Bristol -> Bilbao -> Bristol -> Madrid -> Bristol and finishes his day at 4.45pm.
• Pilot B starts work at 6am on a trip to Bristol -> Edinburgh -> Bristol and finishes his day at 11am.

Now let's look at how this works in practice...

How much is sector pay?

For this example we'll return to the Pilot Jobs Network website and use easyJet's UK contract for the example figures. easyJet's UK contract pays a percentage of a fixed amount depending on sector length, dependant on rank, as below:

The airline then pays a percentage of this sector pay amount depending on the length of the flight in nautical miles:

Now let's break down both pilots' work days.

Pilot A:

Pilot B:

As you can see, the pilot working the much longer four sector day takes home considerably more for their time on that day than their peer who only does two quicker domestic flights. The total of a given months sector pay is summed and paid in addition to a months salary. This is then taxable. It is impossible for me to say how much a given months take home might be once sector pay is factored in as I don't yet receive it. What's more, there is such huge variety in contracts out there... part-time, 75%, 100%, etc etc that there's no real set fixed number of sectors per month either.

So there's basic salary and sector pay... what else could there possibly be? Well, pilots at some airlines might be paid for the following: 

• On time performance bonus
• Annual loyalty bonus
• Company performance bonus 
• Additional pay for greater responsibility, such as becoming a training captain.
• Annual share scheme dividends.

The list goes on, although these items are much more ad-hoc.

As you may now have learned, being an airline pilot is a very rewarding job both in terms of the view out of the window and the pay check we receive at the end of each month. However it bears a great responsibility and more often than not a significant outlay every single month to repay the typical pilot training loans. 

While I might receive close to £3,000 in pay after tax, I am only left with a few hundred for myself once i've paid all my dues. Here's a breakdown of just exactly what I end up paying for each month:

• BBVA Training Loan: £548 (until 2021 when this rises to £748)
• Type Rating Loan: £300
• Rent: £850
• Council Tax: £80
• Bills: £250
• University Student Finance: £60-80 per month.
• Monthly Petrol Bill: £75-100

With whatever is left I aim to put some away for a help to buy mortgage and pay off any remaining university student overdraft / credit card debts. 

Hope this post has been insightful for you and helped you appreciate how pilot pay is worked out.

Any other questions on the career, then left me know.