How to become an Airline Pilot: education, training and skills.
What workers in the job actually report about their education, experience and training, the skills to build first, and the stepping-stone roles that lead in.
- 61% Bachelor's Degree
- 18% High School Diploma or the equivalent (such as a GED)
- 8% Less than a High School Diploma
- 6% Associate's Degree or other 2-year degree
- 5% Post-Secondary Certificate
BLS typical entry-level education: a bachelor's degree
BLS lists a bachelor's degree as the typical entry-level education for workers in the BLS occupation “Airline Pilots, Copilots, and Flight Engineers” in the United States (Employment Projections, 2025–35). Most airline pilots report needing a bachelor's degree (61% of workers surveyed by O*NET). O*NET places the job in Job Zone 4 of 5 (considerable preparation). The most common answer for related work experience was “over 2 years, up to and including 4 years” (33%), and for on-the-job training “over 1 month, up to and including 3 months” (41%).
Data Government data groups this job as Airline Pilots, Copilots, and Flight Engineers (O*NET-SOC 53-2011.00). Figures on this page are for that occupation.
What BLS lists for workers in the BLS occupation “Airline Pilots, Copilots, and Flight Engineers”
According to BLS 2025–35 projections data, workers in the BLS occupation “Airline Pilots, Copilots, and Flight Engineers” in the United States typically need less than 5 years of work experience in a related occupation to enter the occupation.
Source: BLS Employment Projections, 2025–35
Once hired, workers in the BLS occupation “Airline Pilots, Copilots, and Flight Engineers” in the United States typically need moderate-term on-the-job training (more than 1 month, up to 12 months) to become fully competent, according to BLS 2025–35 projections data.
Source: BLS Employment Projections, 2025–35
Six steps to becoming an Airline Pilot
Data Steps 1 to 5 summarise BLS and O*NET data for the role; step 6 is advice.
- EducationPlan for a bachelor's degree
BLS typical entry-level education, 2025–35 projections. In O*NET's worker survey, 61% report a bachelor's degree. 33% report no college degree needed.
- TrainingExpect on-the-job training
Most common: over 1 month, up to and including 3 months.
- ExperienceRelated experience
Most common: over 2 years, up to and including 4 years (33% of workers).
- SkillsBuild the core skills
Operation and Control, Operations Monitoring, Active Listening are rated most important.
- ToolsLearn the tools
Microsoft Visio, R, Microsoft Excel.
- CredentialsCheck licensing where you live
Many occupations need a state license or certification. Requirements vary by state, so confirm with your state's licensing board.
What workers report
Data Share of workers giving each answer, O*NET.
O*NET Job Zone 4 (Considerable Preparation Needed): A considerable amount of work-related skill, knowledge, or experience is needed for these occupations. For example, an accountant must complete four years of college and work for several years in accounting to be considered qualified.
Related roles that need less preparation
Data O*NET related occupations in a lower Job Zone with a skill match of 65% or more.
Data Pay once you are in the job: the BLS median is $232,140; the lowest-paid quarter earn $182,280 or less. See the full Airline Pilot salary data.
How this page is built
Education, experience, training and Job Zone come from O*NET 31.0 survey data for the occupation. The typical entry-level education, work experience and on-the-job training lines come from BLS Employment Projections, 2025–35. O*NET answers with low-precision estimates are not shown, and an answer is called the most common only when no hidden answer could be larger. Stepping-stone roles use our skill-match score: Skill match is the cosine similarity of the two occupations' skill profiles: for each of 35 O*NET skills (10 essential, 25 transferable) we multiply importance by level and subtract the average across all occupations, then compare the direction of the two profiles. 100 means identical shape; 0 means unrelated or opposite (negative values are shown as 0). Only occupations that O*NET itself lists as related are compared.
- Licensing rules in your state.
- Requirements at a specific employer.
- How long the path will take you personally.
- O*NET 31.0 Database, U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA), used under the CC BY 4.0 license. TryHired selected, ranked and combined the data; O*NET is not responsible for these pages.
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025 estimates (public domain).
How TryHired builds this data: sources, methods and downloads. Spotted an error? Report a correction.
More for Airline Pilots
What the job is, skills, tools, pay and related roles.
Open →SalaryAirline Pilot salaryPay by percentile, state and metro, with a negotiation script.
Open →ResumeAirline Pilot resumeKeywords, bullet formulas and the skills to prove.
Open →Interview questionsAirline Pilot interview questionsQuestions with what they test, plus practice mode.
Open →Free toolCheck your resumeParsed text, evidence per bullet, fixes first.
Open →