Expected Pilot salary over 15 years
Thread Starter
Joined: May 2015
Posts: 65
Likes: 0
From: England
Expected Pilot salary over 15 years
Good afternoon
I am currently trying to work out whether jacking in my current role, committing to a £60k investment in an fATPL and pursuing a pilot career is worth it in the long run. I have been through a few older threads but it’s all a tad disjointed.
I know the below will be a mix on ‘finger in the air’ guesses and would depend entirely on contracts, airlines etc but I’m hoping for an ‘educated guess’.
What would the average, expected, total ‘pay per year’ be for a pilot starting from year 1 stretching all the way to 15 years in the future? Assuming I join RYR and move to a flag carrier (I want LH) a few years later and continue from there.
Any approximations would be great.
Thank you
WoR
I am currently trying to work out whether jacking in my current role, committing to a £60k investment in an fATPL and pursuing a pilot career is worth it in the long run. I have been through a few older threads but it’s all a tad disjointed.
I know the below will be a mix on ‘finger in the air’ guesses and would depend entirely on contracts, airlines etc but I’m hoping for an ‘educated guess’.
What would the average, expected, total ‘pay per year’ be for a pilot starting from year 1 stretching all the way to 15 years in the future? Assuming I join RYR and move to a flag carrier (I want LH) a few years later and continue from there.
Any approximations would be great.
Thank you
WoR

Joined: May 2002
Posts: 458
Likes: 48
From: UK
ppjn is a good site to check salaries... BA is there... they are all there! hope this helps!
Pilot Jobs Network - Recruitment news for airline pilots and aviation schools
Pilot Jobs Network - Recruitment news for airline pilots and aviation schools
Thread Starter
Joined: May 2015
Posts: 65
Likes: 0
From: England
ppjn is a good site to check salaries... BA is there... they are all there! hope this helps!
Pilot Jobs Network - Recruitment news for airline pilots and aviation schools
Pilot Jobs Network - Recruitment news for airline pilots and aviation schools

Joined: Dec 2008
Posts: 919
Likes: 6
From: uk
Joined: Sep 2010
Posts: 69
Likes: 0
From: Holland
How old are you out of interest?
And I don’t know where you live, I assume UK of Europe as you are talking of the investment in £?
I’ll firstly say a £60k investment is probably on the conservative side and you’ll be looking at more £80k+ once you look at living costs, time waiting for that first job etc.
I think the previous responses tackle your initial question. One thing I’ll say is, as a career it can be quite difficult to make things work exactly how you want them to and live where you want to live. It’s a good idea in theory ‘start with RYR then move onto a legacy carrier for LH’. I mean maybe you just used that as an example to help you? I probably had this same plan, but ended up not getting into RYR at the time and my first job ended up with a legacy carrier doing LH, but it was based somewhere I did not want to live so I had to reluctantly move on.
In my opinion, legacy carriers are designed to join when you are in your 20’s tbh. Or early to mid 30s if you don’t mind the overall career salary sacrifice. If you have had another career and already have good cash behind you (house with equity etc) then that is a bit of a different story.
I suppose my overall point I want to make is, I love being an airline pilot and would not now do any other job, however, expect years of initial lifestyle sacrifices before you actually live anywhere near where you want to, also you can look at the amount of days off we get and think it looks amazing, but most of those days off are during the week when everyone else is at work, kiss goodbye to many of your weekends and you end up spending those days off recovering from tiredness/jet lag sat on the sofa/in bed.
Good luck!
And I don’t know where you live, I assume UK of Europe as you are talking of the investment in £?
I’ll firstly say a £60k investment is probably on the conservative side and you’ll be looking at more £80k+ once you look at living costs, time waiting for that first job etc.
I think the previous responses tackle your initial question. One thing I’ll say is, as a career it can be quite difficult to make things work exactly how you want them to and live where you want to live. It’s a good idea in theory ‘start with RYR then move onto a legacy carrier for LH’. I mean maybe you just used that as an example to help you? I probably had this same plan, but ended up not getting into RYR at the time and my first job ended up with a legacy carrier doing LH, but it was based somewhere I did not want to live so I had to reluctantly move on.
In my opinion, legacy carriers are designed to join when you are in your 20’s tbh. Or early to mid 30s if you don’t mind the overall career salary sacrifice. If you have had another career and already have good cash behind you (house with equity etc) then that is a bit of a different story.
I suppose my overall point I want to make is, I love being an airline pilot and would not now do any other job, however, expect years of initial lifestyle sacrifices before you actually live anywhere near where you want to, also you can look at the amount of days off we get and think it looks amazing, but most of those days off are during the week when everyone else is at work, kiss goodbye to many of your weekends and you end up spending those days off recovering from tiredness/jet lag sat on the sofa/in bed.
Good luck!




