Commercial Pilot Career
Opportunities And Airline Placements

From the moment you enrol with L3Harris Airline Academy and start learning how to become a commercial pilot, our focus is on establishing pilot career opportunities for you. We are here to support you with finding airline placements and securing your first job as a co-pilot with a world-class airline. The advantages of being a pilot are endless, from travelling the world and constantly learning while challenging yourself, to benefits for you and the whole family.

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Navigating Your Pilot Career: From First Officer to Airline Captain

As an aspiring commercial airline pilot, your career begins after pilot school, once you have secured your licence. After which, your career progression will generally follow the trajectory outlined below, with the expectation that you can become a Captain within three steps.

1. Starting Your Pilot Career - Your First Position:

You will initially start your airline pilot career as a First Officer, serving as the second-in-command to the airline Captain, who has overall responsibility for the flight and the safety of both crew and passengers onboard. As you gain experience in your role, you can expect to earn a salary of up to and average of £48,605.

2. Progressing in Your Career - Your Second Position:

Once you gain greater pilot experience and complete more flying hours, you will progress in your commercial pilot career into the role of a Senior First Officer. You can expect an average salary of up to £58,204.

3. Reaching for New Horizons - Your Captain Position:

After gaining further pilot experience as a Senior First Officer, you can consider applying for a Captain's role. On average, an airline Captain’s salary in the UK is £103,525.

Each exciting role will have varying responsibilities, requirements, benefits and salaries for pilots. Learn more about how much you can expect to earn as a pilot in the UK in our blog.

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Airline Pilot Career - What Will Your Day-To-Day Look Like?

In-Flight Responsibilities:

As you accumulate aviation work experience in your pilot career, your role will involve assisting the Captain in the operation and management of flights. Your main responsibilities will be:

  • To ensure the safety of all passengers and crew members during the flight
  • To be attentive to the crew and keep passengers happy

Adapting to Dynamic Work Environments:

As with all pilot careers, your work environment changes constantly because your flight times, weather conditions, and the colleagues you work with vary from flight-to-flight. What remains constant, however, is that as a pilot, you are responsible for all preparations prior to the flight. This means that you will be responsible for:

  • Inspecting the aircraft before and after flights
  • Obtaining weather briefings
  • Performing calculations using basic arithmetics, mental maths, algebra, and geometry
  • Ensuring that systems are set before flights

Our L3Harris pilot training programmes are designed to fully prepare you for the incredible airline pilot career path that lies ahead of you. With over 40 years of expertise in pilot training and a dedicated airline placements team to help you secure a pilot job in Europe or the UK, you can have full confidence in the exceptional training and support offered by L3Harris Airline Academy.

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Choosing the Right Pilot Career Path

You might be wondering what pathway to take to begin your lucrative airline pilot career. Our L3Harris Airline Academy offers a variety of exceptional pilot training programmes. For example:

We understand that getting a pilot licence is a significant commitment, both financially and personally. That's why it's important to us that you find the right programme for your future career path as a pilot and that you understand the costs and funding of each pilot training course.

By embarking on one of our pilot training courses, you open yourself up to a world of fantastic career opportunities that could see you work for world class airlines and thrive in one of the best pilot jobs in Europe.

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Our Airline Relationships

At L3Harris Airline Academy we are unrivaled in our ability to secure airline placement opportunities for our pilot graduates with some of the world's best-known airlines. We have career pathways open with the likes of British Airways, easyJet and Wizz Air UK!

A unique strength of ours is the significant commitment we have for developing global airline relationships and the time we invest into understanding the staffing and training requirements of the airlines we partner with, in order to enable and further your airline pilot career through valuable airline placements.

Just a few of the airlines we work with around the globe include British Airways, easyJet, Icelandair, IndiGo, Royal Brunei, Ryanair, TAP, Turkish and Wizz Air UK and TUI.

Our airline relationships

We have a recruitment pathway with British Airways!

Eligibility Requirements For Our Airline Relationships

L3Harris Airline Academy provides eligible individuals with opportunities for airline placements through our pilot courses, but makes no guarantee or warranty that an airline placement will be obtained.

Airline placement opportunities are subject to the airline's pilot requirements and eligibility criteria which may be updated or amended by the airline at any time and without prior notice.

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Your Pilot Career Opportunity FAQs

How much can I expect to earn as a pilot?

As a commercial pilot, you can expect to receive high earnings well above the average. 

For experienced commercial pilots, salaries could be anywhere between £54,000 to over £140,000, again depending on the size of the airline.

For further information, please visit: Aviation Job Search 

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What qualifications do I need to commence my pilot training?

To begin pilot training at our Airline Academy you’ll need the following qualifications:

  • A minimum of five GCSEs grade C/4 or above, or international equivalent; which must include Maths, English and Science

Read our full requirements on our pilot qualifications page.

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What are my responsibilities as a commercial airline pilot?

As a commercial airline pilot you have a number of responsibilities, which could include but not be limited to:

  • Gather information about the route, weather, passengers and aircraft
  • Utilising the above information to create a flight plan, this should include details of flight altitude, route and fuel requirements, and should then be submitted to air traffic control
  • Check the overall condition of the aircraft and that the safety systems are working properly before and after every flight
  • Conduct pre-flight checks on the navigation and operating system
  • Communicate with air traffic control before take-off, during the flight and landing
  • Monitor and conduct regular checks on the engines, aircraft systems, fuel consumption and weather conditions
  • Brief the cabin crew before and during the flight
  • Communicate flight updates with passengers

Who could I become a pilot for?

There are many commercial airlines both in the UK and the rest of the world which you could become a pilot for. These include but are not limited to:

  • British Airways
  • easyJet
  • WizzAir
  • Jet2
  • Ryanair
  • TUI Group
  • Oman Air
  • TAP Air Portugal

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Have L3Harris Airline Academy secured any employment opportunities for graduate cadets?

Yes. Thanks to the hard work of our Graduate Placement team and our strong airline relationships, thousands of our graduates now fly for airlines across the world. Click here for the latest information.

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What is better, ATPL or CPL?

ATPL is an Airline Transport Pilot Licence and is the highest level of pilot certification to embark on a career as a First Officer.

CPL is a Commercial Pilot Licence and enables you to act as a pilot in command of a small piston engine for commercial purposes.

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