Airplane Pilot Career Paths

You’ll start your career by getting the ratings and certificates you need to fly professionally. After you finish flight training, you’ll have somewhere around 250 hours of flight time as an airplane pilot.

But you’ll need anywhere from 750 to 1250 more hours to move on to your next step—working at a regional airline or entry-level job in another pilot career path like corporate charter or cargo.

So how do you even start pursuing your pilot career goals? At Hillsboro Aero Academy, your first professional airplane pilot job is closer than you think.

There are always exceptions, but a surefire way to advance your career is to become a flight instructor. You’ll sharpen your skills through the act of teaching students and build your flight hours while you get paid.

We do hire many of our qualified graduates as flight instructors, and you’ll find the best way to make the next move in your career—whether you’re aiming to be an airline pilot, corporate pilot or freight pilot.

You’ll typically spend a year or two as an instructor before you move on to the next step.

This career path offers more routine schedules that are known in advance, the chance to work with a team, and the opportunity to fly international routes. It can start off with lower entry pay, but it leads to stronger benefits in the long run.

Like any goal, there’s a tactical way to approach your airline pilot career. First, you’ll start off flying for regional airlines like SkyWest, Horizon Air, and ExpressJet.

Here, you’ll fly everything from medium turboprop aircraft to jets like the CRJ 900. At this level you’ll gain invaluable experience around airline operations, also know as Part 121—learning to coordinate with airport crews and satisfy customers. You’ll also learn how operations at small and major airports work.

Your time at the regional level depends on the hiring needs of major airlines like Delta, American, and EVA Air. Once you make the leap into the big leagues, you’ll fly larger aircraft and longer routes.

With higher pay than airlines and less predictable schedules, this aviation career path will have you flying for businesses and private individuals around the world.

Some clients own the jet themselves and other own a fraction of their time—meaning you’ll fly a variety of missions. NetJets and XOJETS are examples of companies you’d work for in this arena.

The aircraft you’ll fly are state-of-the-art, with luxurious interiors and the latest avionics equipment. Your schedule will vary greatly from day to day—you could just as easily end up in Mumbai as in Memphis. This career demands an adventurous individual who’s ready to go with the flow and loves the challenge of changing plans on the go.

To step into this career path, you’ll start as a flight instructor and likely spend some time as a regional pilot, building the skills you need to operate at small and large airports.

If you dream of flying solo without worrying about passengers, a career as a Freight Part 135 pilot is for you.

On this path you’ll fly everything from single-engine Cessnas filled with boxes to FedEx® 747s on international routes. Like any other pilot career path, you’ll start off in smaller aircraft and work your way up.

The Freight Part 135 world works similarly to the airlines in that you begin flying regional feeder routes to learn the ropes before you step into more advanced aircraft and longer routes.

You will find yourself flying alone a lot in this career, which is as challenging as it is rewards. It’s not to say that you’ll never have a co-pilot for large operations, but you’ll have the opportunity to hone your problem-solving skills and instincts more often as a freight airplane pilot.

As one of the longest-standing and best-known flight schools in the world, we’re able to connect our alumni to a vast network spanning 55 countries. By joining our school, you’ll be connected to major airlines around the world, including those in our Career Pathways program.