Highest Paid Pilots
 

We often have the "how much do you make" threads here on pprune.

But I always wanted to know, who are highest paid pilots in the world. ie Corporate Pilots, Cargo, Pax, Military ect..

I know in the US, some Delta Airline pilots would make 300K a year (dont think they still make that).. Are there pilots who make 400-500K per annum??

Are there pilots who make 400-500K per annum??

If there are any pilots out there makings these figures they are also unlikely to reply this thread...

Cheers :oh:

Cathay A scale is where it's at.

John Travolta, Harrison Ford and that's it.:O

There's one who does vocals for some heavy metal band. \m/ \0/

ChocksAwayUK - you are thinking of Bruce Dickinson, Iron Maiden, Astreus.

The cargo guys in the states get paid pretty well from what I know (UPS etc). As someone mentioned, Cathay are good. As for 300k at Delta, I presume you are talking US dollars not GB pound. In that case it's not ALL that great. BA guys get £150k and more after a while (thats including flight pay etc) and I think Lufthansa get about the same too.

It's definately not going to be any u.s based passenger airline pilots. Not anymore anyways. I know some motivated southwest guys make over 2-300 pretty easy, other than that I'd have to say big brown or fedex are the rich guys now days. I've talked to a few who have told me that (pure rumor here I can't back it up) some guys are making over 4-5 hundred a year by picking up o.t and things like that.

As pointed out above, wealthy entertainers or the self employed.

"You will never get rich working for anyone. You may get rich working for yourself."

The Cathay A scalers certainly did well but its a closed shop now. Last I heard they were onto C scale or worse.

T&C's across the world are deteriorating at each and every pay round. Whilst you might get £150k and upwards at BA for being a senior skipper the problem is you start at the bottom of the rung. By the time you reach the top of the rung I can guarantee you that pay would have fallen behind inflation so the glory days are certainly over. Airline money isn't that great but what it does give you is a degree of job security. And I hasten to add that I use that term very loosely given the way fuel prices are going and who knows what the future will hold for any of us.

The best paid seem to be the journeyman TRE types who are willing to hop skip and jump across the world taking contracts in emerging nations and filling a skills shortage. Generally these are short term and sporadic in nature though so you need to be footloose and fancy free.

The headline salary figure can be very misleading - taxation and cost of living have a large influence upon your actual spending power. Lifestyle is what counts - achieving the correct balance between work and home life. Salary is only part of the equation.

Euro to Sterling and Euro to Dollar rate is quite high this year isn't it ?:suspect:
(still good pay , don't get me wrong on that (to bad it is after 30 years of service though)).

Europe base.

CX 1st year Freighter Captain is on GBP 81,732

CX 1st year Pax Captain GBP 97,896

No where near the highest paid, as said "A scale" was over in 1989!

First year F/O GBP 48,000

ArkeFly : first year F/O : peanuts (unsalted)
ArkeFly : first year Capt. : peanuts (salted)

A graphic of payscale comparisons in US appeared in the IHT recently...

http://www.iht.com/bin/enlarge_this_image.php

oh...this is the full article in IHT entitled "Pilots' dreams runs into reality"

http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/04/...ess/pilots.php

FH

Pilots on Middle East "Royal Flights" do very well indeed but they won't be telling you about it here! I had a collegaue who worked 2 months a year on contract in this sort of operation and he didn't do or need to do any other work for the other 10 months of the year.

FedEx pilots are the best paid in the world, even better than cathay, air france, emirates, etc...

ArkeFlaai , dat is een goeie..;-) ( ArkeFlaai , that is a good one..)

Cargo Pilots from ex Soviet Union make 200k-300k a year
 

I have a friend who flys Il-76s into war torn countries, because no one else is crazy enought o fly there. There is a lot of risk, but he said he makes from $25,000 to $30,000 usd a month. When they land in places like Iraq, they always stay on the aircraft, instead of going to some insurgent run hotel. He said at first he did not like the idea, but after two years, 3 apartments, one farm and a good bank account, he's use to it, but I think it's not worth it. (he's an F/O by the way, the captain on these flights makes easily $30,000 usd a month)

Typhoon Instructors in Saudi Arabia.

Hasn't started yet, but there's not many qualified guys who are prepared to go there. Less than a dozen, I'd say.

It's speculation, but GBP 170.000 with all education, accommodation and travel on top is where the ball park is.

Supply and demand.

Wish I'd been born 20 years later and THEN done better at school.

Even if I had, I wouldn't do it, even for that money.