How To Become An Airline Captain: What It Is and Career Path

What is an airline captain and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

3 min read

The average airline captain salary is $73,767. The most common degree is a bachelor's degree degree with an aviation major. It usually takes 2-4 years of experience to become an airline captain. Airline captains with a Airline Transport Pilot (ATP) certification earn more money. Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 6% and produce 7,700 job opportunities across the U.S.

ScoreAirline CaptainUS Average

Salary

5.8

Avg. Salary $73,767

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability Level

9.8

Growth Rate 6%

Growth Rate 0.3%

Diversity

5.2

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.26%

Asian 2.77%

Black or African American 2.71%

Hispanic or Latino 7.14%

Unknown 5.56%

White 81.56%

Gender

female 2.61%

male 97.39%

Age - 44

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 44

Stress Level

9.8

Stress level is very high

7.1 - high

Complexity Level

9.4

Complexity Level is advanced

7 - challenging

Work Life Balance

4.4

Work Life balance is poor

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become an airline captain

Explore airline captain education requirements

Most common airline captain degrees

Bachelor's

63.0 %

Associate

14.8 %

Master's

11.1 %

Start to develop specific airline captain skills

Skills	Percentages
Passenger Aircraft	100.00%

Complete relevant airline captain training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 1-3 months on post-employment, on-the-job training. New airline captains learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as an airline captain based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real airline captain resumes.

Research airline captain duties and responsibilities

Appoint to numerous leadership and managerial positions as a helicopter pilot.
Oversee flight crewmembers, including co-pilot and flight engineer.

Prepare your airline captain resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your airline captain resume.

You can use Zippia's AI resume builder to make the resume writing process easier while also making sure that you include key information that hiring managers expect to see on an airline captain resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose From 10+ Customizable Airline Captain Resume templates

Build a professional Airline Captain resume in minutes. Browse through our resume examples to identify the best way to word your resume. Then choose from 10+ resume templates to create your Airline Captain resume.

Apply for airline captain jobs

Now it's time to start searching for an airline captain job. Consider the tips below for a successful job search:

Browse job boards for relevant postings
Consult your professional network
Reach out to companies you're interested in working for directly
Watch out for job scams

How do airline captains rate their job?