I'm curious if there are any real life captain's here who fly commercial airliners, like for United, Cathay Pacific, etc. How much do they make a year? 

 

When I was younger I always wanted to become a pilot. However I am now 37, is it too late for me to become one? I want to fly commercial airliners such as the 777. But I think it's too late for that. :(

From what I gather , the highest pay packages at the moment are being offered in many chinese airlines such as China Airlines . They give a monthly package of about  11,000 US$ /month after tax deductions. Thats about 132,000 US$ a year excluding the other perks and privileges.

 

In Emirates new captains earn anywhere from 60 to 70,000 Dirhams and provided accomodation in duplex villas with swimming pool and other amenities.

 

Wow, I didn't know pilots make that much! How does one become a FO or Captain for a major airline? What steps are involved, and being 37 years old, is it too late to become one?

US Pilot salaries could do allot better. Only the most senior make a decent wage for what they do.

Could someone break it down. Interested in salary/pay information for US region pilots. I thought all Captains make the same amount and same for FO?

Varies. It takes years to jump to the left seat, so that's quite irrelevant. Regional entry F/Os circa $20,000/year. You're better off in Taco Bell.

 

Starting out in the us is horrible. Many years in a regional airline making absolutely nothing. Like 20k/ year and you just finished your training with 50k in debt. And that's the going rate from no flight experience to ATP rated. Airlines are all seniority based. It might take 15 years before you fly long haul. And the airline industry is cyclical. Job security is not guaranteed. Air Canada's chief 777 pilot in the just planes polar route talks about his career. I believe he was laid off twice. Airlines are a small profit margin business. There's not a lot of money for pilots. The allure of being a pilot is definitely better than the reality. In other countries it may be different. There's a 777/787 FO at ethiopian with 6 years of seniority and he started in a 738.

This article from a couple years ago may be of interest.

 

http://blogs.wsj.com/middleseat/2009/06/16/pilot-pay-want-to-know-how-much-your-captain-earns/

 

Not necessarily an industry to go into if you are planning to make it rich fast, at least in the US.

 

Don't know how accurate all of these numbers are, but there are sites out there that list pilot pay rates.

 

http://www.aviationinterviews.com/pilot/airlinepayrates.html

 

http://canadianpilotpay.com/

There probably is some sort of age requirement for airlines. There is for air traffic controllers; 27 in US. Btw that's the job in aviation where the money is. Stressful yes but surely rewarding. I would try to get into atc if I wasn't over 27.

Wow, I didn't know pilots make that much! How does one become a FO or Captain for a major airline? What steps are involved, and being 37 years old, is it too late to become one?

Here's my brief scope, being that I'm going through that process now. Pilots in the US can do a lot worse and a lot better. It is awful at the bottom, but the view from the top isn't bad either. As has been said regional F/Os making ~20,000 a year isn't unheard of. The top captain at FedEx last year made over $500,000. So needless to say the gap is wide. At 37 the ship to fly long haul has pretty much sailed unfortunately. Your flight training is going to take ~4 years to get to commercial pilot/flight instructor/multi/instrument, so if you started now you'd be 41 by then (rough numbers). This part is where the real problem is. You have to build that time in order to get your ATP. The way it stands currently is that if you go up through part 61 flight schools (mom & pop shops) you need 1500 hours total time to get your ATP. That is a LOT when you aren't being paid to fly jets 8 hours a day. This process typically takes at LEAST 3 years, depending on how dedicated you are. Once that's out of the way, you have to get hired by a regional. Most majors (the only guys who long haul) require many more hours (to the tune of 3,500) before you can get hired. So you fly the regionals and build your time. This may take 4 years, depending on where you are. Keep in mind these are extremely rough numbers and can vary heavily. Lets just say by this point in the process you're 49-52 years old. You've still got in the neighborhood of 15 years until your mandatory retirement at 65, but the problem is depending on your seniority status and hiring class number, you may need 20 to start flying big jets long distances. So assuming you shoot straight through the system and start NOW, you may not get the seniority to fly long haul by the end anyway. If you're willing and can find a way to get hired by a carrier like Emirates or Cathay Pacific, you're going to fly big jets much sooner, but you have to be willing to live a significant portion of your life in Dubai or Hong Kong respectively. This is a lot of talking and I don't want to deter you from getting your licenses, but know that the road to US based carriers is long and arduous and your clock has been ticking all your life. I wish it were better news, but it's something you've gotta be completely committed to here in the states.

P.S. I sure hope this helped and answered some of your questions! (Rather my poor fingers hope it helped, I wrote this on an iPad mini.)

There were those days when we wanted to become police men, fire fighters ... or, precisely, pilots.

 

Looks like becoming a sim pilot is so much easier - and very often, unfortunately, is much more fun!

 

 

When I was younger I always wanted to become a pilot. However I am now 37, is it too late for me to become one? I want to fly commercial airliners such as the 777. But I think it's too late for that. :(

 

Mijitman sounds pretty right on the money. I also ran across this on youtube a few days ago. A real pilot answering precisely that question. Pretty blunt.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJk9Skxyi84

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJk9Skxyi84

This video is really good, and he talks about a couple things I missed. If you don't have 12 minutes the biggest thing I forgot to mention was that you pretty much HAVE to have a four year college degree in aviation specifically to get a majors job nowadays. So that's a whole new boatload of time (and mostly money) you have to throw at it.

It depends of the region and the airline, in europe normally in a big flag airline you can win between 4000 to 6000 euros after taxes as a FO, and 7000 to 12000 as a captain, low cost carriers like easyjet or ryanair between 3000 and 4000 as a FO and 6000 to 7000 as a captain. You can find other carriers that are paying 2000 euros to FO and 4000 to 5k to the captains. All depends of the company and the country.