Occupation · SOC 53-2011
Airline Pilots, Copilots, and Flight Engineers Salary
Airline Pilots, Copilots, and Flight Engineers earn a median of $232,140 a year in the United States, which is Not published an hour. The mean is $288,650, and 103,560 people are employed in the occupation.
Also searched as PilotAirline Pilot
The full pay range
A single average hides most of what a reader wants to know. BLS publishes the whole distribution, so here it is: each row is the annual salary at that point in the pay range for airline pilots, copilots, and flight engineers.
Annual salary by percentile May 2025
| Percentile | Annual salary | Typically |
|---|---|---|
| 10th percentile | $106,710 | entry level, or a lower-paying region |
| 25th percentile | $182,280 | early career |
| Median (50th) | $232,140 | half earn more, half earn less |
| 75th percentile | $384,440 | experienced |
| 90th percentile | $463,830 | top of the field |
Airline Pilots, Copilots, and Flight Engineers salary by state
These are the 12 states that employ enough airline pilots, copilots, and flight engineers for BLS to report a reliable figure, ordered by median pay. A state missing here either employs too few to publish or falls below the threshold this site uses.
Median pay by state May 2025
| State | Median | Hourly | Jobs |
|---|---|---|---|
| Georgia | $618,090 | Not published | 8,770 |
| California | $353,900 | Not published | 10,670 |
| Kentucky | $350,950 | Not published | 6,260 |
| Colorado | $307,490 | Not published | 5,830 |
| Illinois | $293,490 | Not published | 6,460 |
| New York | $255,240 | Not published | 6,900 |
| Washington | $229,900 | Not published | 3,450 |
| Florida | $225,020 | Not published | 7,760 |
| Texas | $215,150 | Not published | 10,930 |
| Minnesota | $211,470 | Not published | 2,960 |
| Pennsylvania | $164,990 | Not published | 2,270 |
| North Carolina | $151,540 | Not published | 2,240 |
Common questions
How much do airline pilots, copilots, and flight engineers make?
The median salary for airline pilots, copilots, and flight engineers in the United States is $232,140 a year, which is Not published an hour. The mean is $288,650. Median and mean differ because a small number of very high earners pull the mean upward, so the median is the better answer to what the job typically pays.
What is the highest salary for an airline pilots, copilots, and flight engineer?
The highest-paid 10 percent of airline pilots, copilots, and flight engineers earn $463,830 or more. That is the highest figure the survey publishes for this occupation; there is no reported maximum, and individual earnings above it are not broken out.
How many people work as airline pilots, copilots, and flight engineers in the US?
103,560, as of the May 2025 release. That covers wage and salary workers in nonfarm establishments and excludes the self-employed, who are not surveyed.
How much do airline pilots, copilots, and flight engineers make a month?
About $19,345 a month before tax, which is the published annual median of $232,140 divided by twelve. BLS publishes annual and hourly wages rather than monthly, so treat this as arithmetic on the annual figure, not a separate measurement.
Do airline pilots, copilots, and flight engineers make $100,000 a year?
Typically, yes. The median is $232,140, so more than half of airline pilots, copilots, and flight engineers earn six figures, and the top 10 percent earn $463,830 or more.
How much does a Pilot make?
Pilot is a common name for airline pilots, copilots, and flight engineers, classified by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics under SOC code 53-2011. The median salary is $232,140 a year, or Not published an hour. The same job is also called Airline Pilot.
Which state pays airline pilots, copilots, and flight engineers the most?
Of the 12 states with enough airline pilots, copilots, and flight engineer employment to report reliably, Georgia has the highest median at $618,090, against a national median of $232,140. A higher median is not automatically more money in hand, because cost of living varies at least as much as pay does.
Where these numbers come from
Every figure above is published by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS), May 2025 release, for SOC code 53-2011. Nothing here is interpolated or averaged by this site. The survey covers wage and salary workers in nonfarm establishments and excludes the self-employed. See how to read these figures for what that means in practice.