How many years does it take to become an airline pilot and actually be able to fly an airline plane?

Question

Thank you for the info.

Answer 1

1) Major in aviation at some university: 4 years

2) Start for a smaller company, flying business jets or the like: 2-6 years

3) Get hired by one of the big companies

I'd say between 6 and 12 years If you started school tommorow. ALTHOUGH, if you joined the air force you could probably cut that time down to 5 years minimum, although you would have to risk your life for four years, your choice.

And with gas prices rising, these companies are making a LOT of cuts, may not be the best field to go into right now, but if you want to go for it.

Answer 2

Kind of a long time bud

Answer 3

Once again Ben has a solid answer for you,  at this point in time.. getting hired by one of the Legacy carriers (assuming they are still in business) is going to be about nil...  first they have a huge backlog of furloughed pilot that are going to be given the chance to come back first.. BUT.. most of those guys are going to have rocks in their heads to do that. I just watched a buddy get recalled by UAL and he is back on the street a year later.. and yes.. he had an EXCELLENT job that he left to go back to *glamour* of flying for the big airlines.

Unless you have extreme luck...  family connections, or something that totally sets you apart above and beyond the other guys... such as experience in the jets they are already flying such as 737 757 767 etc... and you are just looking to work for someone with that name and uniform... you are going to have a very small chance of being hired.. because of all the THOUSANDS of sons and nephews of existing pilots that are going to have references 3 pages long...  there will be many many more pilots than slots.

BEN.... you have indeed ben dere and done dat..  Just  FWIW man.... have you looked at Air India?  They are hurting big time for native english speaking pilots... big jets big money.. and I was *told* that you CAN have a West Coast base...  I didn't pursue it.. because I have done my bit over there.. and had enough.... but just incase... thought I would pass it along.

Answer 4

If you go through an accelerated training course, you can get your commercial pilot single and multi-engine ratings and flight instructor license (CFI), preferrably the multi-engine instructor license, in as little as a year. If the job market gets hot like it was a few years ago, you might only spend a year instructing before you get hired as a copilot on a regional airline, and then you might get lucky and be hired by a major airline within 3-5 years after that.

Some people never get there, like myself. I got my college degree and started when the industry was in a bad slump in 1985. After 4 years of flight instructing I finally got hired by a regional airline flying turbo-props (not jets). After 5 years of that (4 as captain) I wasn't getting any major airline interviews  so I switched to "bush" flying in Alaska for 6 years, followed by 4 years of aerial firefighting, and now I'm flying corporate. 16,000+ safe and successful flights and 23 years after starting out I'm still hoping to get hired by a major airline but by the time they start hiring again, I'll  be too old to be considered. I'm not complaining, that's the breaks; it's all a matter of timing and knowing the right people (which is very important).

Obviously everyone's experience is different. I know a few people who got into a major airline 2 years out of college.