Career Atlas

Airline Pilots & Engineers vs Commercial Pilots

Compare Airline Pilots & Engineers and Commercial Pilots side by side: median pay, job outlook, AI exposure, education, and top skills. Airline Pilots & Engineers pays about $109k more.

Airline Pilots & Engineers

Median pay$232k
OutlookGrowing
AI exposureSome 37%, modeled
EducationBachelor's plus flight hours
Active ListeningCritical ThinkingMonitoringReading ComprehensionSpeaking

Commercial Pilots

Median pay$123k
OutlookGrowing fast
AI exposureSome 42%, modeled
EducationHigh school plus license
MonitoringCritical ThinkingActive ListeningReading ComprehensionSpeaking
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Pay and outlook: BLS (OEWS 2025, Employment Projections 2024-2034). Skills: O*NET 30.3. AI exposure is a modeled estimate. How we model AI exposure.