How long does it take to become a airline pilot?

Question

How long does it take to become a airline pilot?

Answer 1

As long as it takes you to gain as much experience as needed for the job. After you get the right degree, it is mostly about the number of hours you've flown certain types of planes. You could get an instructor's job for a couple of years in order to gain all that experience and accumulate the hours.

Answer 2

I graduated high school in 2004, started a 2 year degree that fall and took my FIRST flight lesson in september of 2004, got a private pilot license in december, got an instrument rating in November of 2005, a commercial rating feb of 2006, an instructor license july of 06, a commercial multi engine in october of 07 and began flying for US Airways Express in December of 2007.  I instructed from july 06 up to the week before I started ground school with my job and got hired with 900 hours flight time and my 2 year college degree in aviation.   If your real smart and can learn at a fast pace and have a crapload of money you can go to places like ATP, which have like 6 month accelerated career courses but theyre VERY expensive and you have to be able to drink information from a fire hose for an entire 6 months and even then starting an airline job with only 250 hours is even more difficult than it already is. My total cost including college was about 32,000 over those three years.

Answer 3

Even if you are a top gun in the service, you still need get by a probationary period with the commercial airlines, before you are a "captain".