Flies business jets on schedules set by the people in the back.
The work
Corporate flying trades the airline’s predictability for flexibility. The destination can change on the day, the field can be short, and the crew is often two people who also handle the catering, the customs paperwork and the hotel. The flying is more varied and the standards are no lower.
A typical day
- 01Plan a trip that may be re-planned twice before it departs
- 02Operate into shorter runways and smaller fields than an airliner would
- 03Handle the ground arrangements the airline has a department for
- 04Wait, sometimes for days, then fly at short notice
How people get in
- From instructing
A very common route. Corporate operators hire on judgement and attitude as much as on hours.
- From the airlines
Some pilots move the other way for the variety, or for a roster that suits them better.
How it unfolds
- Year 1Instructing or charter, learning to operate into fields an airliner would never see.
- Years 2-5First officer or single-pilot on a light jet, and every part of the trip that is not flying.
- Years 6+Captain, and often the person who plans the trip, handles the customs and books the hotel.
- LaterChief pilot for an operator or a single owner, which is a management job with flying attached.
Is there a job in it
- Employed now
- 155,400
- Projected change
- +4% by 2034
- Openings a year
- 18,200
Airline and commercial pilots · US Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Outlook Handbook, May 2024 wages and 2024–34 projections.
The Handbook counts one occupation for every professional pilot in the country, so this figure covers airline, cargo, corporate, instructional and survey flying together. Pay in particular varies enormously inside it — a first-year regional first officer and a wide-body captain are both in this number.
The hard parts
The schedule is not yours. A trip can move by a day or a continent with an afternoon of notice, and standby is genuinely standing by. You are closer to the customer than any airline pilot ever is, which is a skill in itself and not one everybody enjoys.
What you would need
- Short-field technique
- International procedures
- Customer judgement
- Self-dispatch
- Median pay
- $198,100
- Airline and commercial pilots, May 2024. US Bureau of Labor Statistics.
- Typical education
- Commercial licence, instrument rating and a type rating
- Routes in
- Licence or certification, Military
- Field
- Aviation
