The role of a Pilot in the UK is both thrilling and highly rewarding. As the aviation industry continues to expand with new technologies and growing travel demand, the need for skilled pilots remains strong. From major airports in London to regional hubs in Manchester and Edinburgh, employers are seeking experienced professionals, offering competitive salaries and exceptional opportunities for career progression in this exciting and prestigious field.
Pilot salary
Base pay £59K – £89K/yr
£72K/yr average base pay
The estimated salary for a Airline Pilot is £72,262 per year. This number represents the median, which is the midpoint of the ranges from our proprietary Total Pay Estimate model and based on salaries collected from our users. The “Most Likely Range” represents values that exist within the 25th and 75th percentile of all pay data available for this role.
The “Most Likely Range” reflects values within the 25th and 75th percentile of all pay data available for this role. Glassdoor salaries are powered by our proprietary machine learning model, which utilises salaries collected from our users and the latest government data to make pay predictions.
What do Pilot earn
How much does a Pilot make in United Kingdom?
£55,087/yr
Highest paying cities for Pilot near United Kingdom
- Heathrow £95,897 per year
7 salaries reported - Manchester £74,206 per year
8 salaries reported - Bristol £67,623 per year
5 salaries reported - Leeds £65,854 per year
10 salaries reported - London £65,015 per year
30 salaries reported - Oxford £62,093 per year
8 salaries reported - Gatwick Airport £61,932 per year
8 salaries reported - Exeter £61,062 per year
7 salaries reported - Birmingham £42,599 per year
13 salaries reported
What’s on Quora?
What is the average yearly salary of pilot?
Top Answer
The answer to this question varies greatly.
When a pilot is just starting out, they are limited to what jobs they can do. This could be a banner tower, a Certified Flight Instructor, aerial survey, or they could do parachute operations. These are usually used as “time builder” jobs, and don’t usually make a lot of money. That’s not to say that some people don’t make full careers out of these jobs and end up running their own business or something like that and make a boatload. But typically these entry level jobs pay somewhere between $10,000 – 50,000 per year.
Usually starting into the commercial world as a first officer in a charter operation, or early in the airline career, you are looking at somewhere between 15,000 per year and 50,000 per year. My first job in the charter world paid me $18,000 per year. Not great money considering many pilots have somewhere between $60,000 – 100,000 in debt from their flight training.
Many airlines had sign on bonuses not long ago, but we’ll see what that all looks like post COVID.
As a pilot progresses in their career and rises the ranks, the money gets better.
A pilot in their peak earning years should be making somewhere around $120,000 – 400,000 per year. I would say the average senior captain makes around $200,000. In the airlines you have to retire at 65 so this should usually mean that a pilot has around 20–30 years of this kind of earning potential. Which sounds like a lot, but you have to pay your dues. It takes a handful of years barely getting by to make it to those numbers.
