Most commercial pilots make very little actual money - nearly starvation wages. Maybe a flight instructor makes $20 - $30 per hour, but that only counts hours spent actually flying, and he is lucky to get 15 or 20 of those per week. Maybe he flies a little plane along the length of an underground pipeline every day looking for trouble, and he gets something a bit better than minimum wage, when he's actually flying. Maybe he is towing banners or doing short sightseeing tours. Some people manage to find a niche and do exceedingly well at these commercial pilot activities, but most are barely surviving.

There's an enormous fringe benefit, though. While that commercial pilot may only be getting paid $15 for each hour he is actually flying the plane, he is also getting one hour of flight time in his logbook, and that hour of experience would likely cost him somewhere in the neighborhood of $100 or more if he rented a plane or flew his own plane.

When the pilot racks up 1000 - 1500 of those hours (depending upon the type of flight school he attended) he becomes eligible to apply to get an ATP license, which will allow him to transport passengers for hire. Now he can, maybe, get a job with a regional airline making decent money, but probably still well under $100k per year. After a few years of that, maybe he moves up to a major airline where, after several more years of experience, he gets up into the middle $100k range.

The “commercial pilot” phase of a flying career is usually a very lean time for most pilots. Some find a niche and do quite well there, but most are working primarily for the experience with a few bucks thrown their way to keep them fed until they can become ATP pilots.
#AirlinePilot #RegionalAirlinePilot
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