Airline Pilots and Family

The average airline pilot today starts a family very late. Most of my pilot friends are older when they get married and have kids. In the beginning of training pilots don't make any money and it takes a lot of time and dedication.

Even after training airline pilots don't make any money. In fact most First Officers don't make enough to buy a house because of all the debt incurred during training. If a starting a family and being able to support them I would consider another career. If having kids and a house at about 30+ years old sounds good to you then be an airline pilot.

Here is the typical first year pilot pay for an FO at the regional airlines:
1. At least $40,000 in debt from flight training.
2. College debt would be on top of that.
3. Average pilot I know that went to a university flight school is $70,000 or more in debt.
4. First year pilot pay at the airline is $19,000 gross.
5. Second year pay is around $29,000 gross.
6. Third and fourth year about the same.
7. Sometime in 4th year you may be able to upgrade to captain and pilot pay will be about $51,000 gross.

Guess what when you upgrade to captain you will have the worst schedule at the company for some time to come. You will work all holidays, weekends and have no control over your schedule. You will probably not get the vacations you want because you are so junior.

This all really helps the family life doesn't it? Then after all this you now have the qualifications to move on to another bigger airline. Guess what you get to go throughout all this again, low pay and really bad schedules. That again is good for the family. Sometimes I really wonder why people work so hard to be airline pilots.

Not sounding too good is it. What happened to the dream job of being a airline pilot and paid like a true professional. Any other career that requires the dedication that being an airline pilot does typically pays much better.

Now you see why it is so hard to start a family during the first part of an airline career. But wait, if you are like most airline pilots you will experience a few furloughs over the years and that will really set you back too.

If you are young, and know a major airline pilot down the street I would not expect your airline pilot career to be the same. I made that mistake, I admired the major airline pilots I knew and I wanted their lifestyle. The airline industry is changing fast and I think it will be much different in the future. Due to the lack of opportunities you will see more pilots staying at the regional level and it is nothing like what the pilot down the street has experienced.

Plus many of the major airline pilots that seem to of had the greatest career went through the military. They didn't have to pay $70,000 for flight training and school. Often the military paid for their college or had a bonus. It is a lot different and you had better know a little more of what it is like today in the airlines.

The big paying dream job is gone for quite some time.

The thing that worries me the most if I stay in the airlines is what is going to happen with fuel over the next 25 years. I think the airlines are going to see a lot of problems in the future. We are going to see things happen to airlines that they haven't even thought of yet. And as you can see airline management are not the sharpest tools in the shed.

You need to ask if you want to put your family through this. Don't base any decisions on what airline pilot life in the past was like. You need to analyze the current airline industry, try to predict what is going to happen and decide if you what to be part of the mess.