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British Airways pilots earn between £40,000 and £225,000+ ($54,000 to over $300,000) per year, with pay varying significantly depending on rank, seniority, fleet, and other factors. British Airways is the largest airline in the United Kingdom, although easyJet, Virgin Atlantic, Ryanair, and TUI Airways are also large employers of pilots. BA is also overall generally the best-paying airline for UK pilots, or at least very competitive (e.g., with Virgin Atlantic).
Commercial pilot compensation in the UK is somewhat similar in structure to US-based commercial pilots, while also having notable differences (particularly with pensions, bonuses, and allowances). Overall, the largest US-based airline pilots typically earn more than their UK counterparts. Here is what to know about how much a British Airways rookie First Officer can earn versus what a seasoned widebody Captain can earn at the peak of his career.
How British Pilots Progress
Airline pilot careers have a progression broadly similar to that of military officer careers, in that pay generally increases with experience and promotion. However, commercial airline pay is driven primarily by seniority and progression from First Officer to Captain rather than by military-style rank. All fast jet pilots in the US Air Force and Royal Air Force are commissioned officers and are paid as commissioned officers. Pilots are generally not paid so much based on the aircraft they fly, but based on their rank, vacancies, and years of service. In the commercial sector, the two ranks are First Officer and Captain.
Promotion to Captain typically brings a substantial increase in base salary. In the commercial sector, pay is also influenced by the type of airlines the pilots fly for. Whereas regional airlines are often seen as stepping stones for new pilots to accumulate flight hours and experience in the United States, it is somewhat different in the UK, with more progression paths. Some British pilots start with low-cost and leisure airlines (e.g., TUI and Ryanair), but this varies. Like the United States, they fly narrowbody aircraft as First Officers before being promoted to Captain.
Often there is a progression flying with regional carriers, then low-cost carriers, and then mainline carriers (like British Airways), although pilot shortages have had some impact and some pilots go straight from regional to mainline carriers. In the industry, pay and the aircraft pilots fly are typically based on seniority and years of service. Being a widebody Captain is typically the pinnacle of a pilot’s flying career and the highest-paid position.
British Airways’ First Officer Pay
As a rough guide, a rookie First Officer can be expected to receive a base pay of £40,000 – £65,000 ($53,600 – $87,100) initially and to be assigned to short-haul routes. As with other pilot jobs, this is a floor, and in practice, pilots receive a range of other benefits that can significantly boost base pay. Adding in allowances, a beginner can expect to earn around £45,000 – £75,000+ (up to $100,000) once additional benefits are accounted for.
Long-haul and experienced First Officers flying for British Airways can expect to earn more, around £70,000–£125,000 (up to $167,000) depending on factors. This is generally more than what a First Officer can expect to make flying for low-cost carriers like easyJet and Ryanair UK. This is around a third or quarter of what their experienced widebody Captains can expect to make annually.
As a general outline, a narrowbody First Officer will have around five to ten years of total flying experience and will have accumulated around 2,500 to 5,000 hours of total flight hours. This would include around 200–250 hours as a cadet and getting a commercial license, and then 250–1,500 hours and around two years in the first airline job before becoming a narrowbody First Officer.
British Airways’ Captain Pay
As stated, British Airways Captains are some of the most experienced pilots, and they have reached the pinnacle of their career. The type of aircraft they fly has some bearing on their pay, but it is secondary to their rank and years of experience/service. A typical British Airways widebody Captain will often have 20–35 years of total flying experience and have accumulated around 10,000 to 20,000 or more total flight hours.
With British Airways, a widebody Captain flying a Boeing 777, Boeing 787, Airbus A350, or Airbus A380 can expect to earn around a base pay of around £145,000 – £167,000+ ($194,300 – $223,800) per year and around £170,000 – £200,000+ ($227,800 – $268,000+) with allowances. Calculating bonuses and allowances can be complicated; some sources say British Airways widebody Captains can earn as much as the £225,000–£275,000 (up to $369,000) range.
Notable UK-based airlines | Fleet size (per Planespotters.net) | Aircraft flown |
|---|---|---|
British Airways | 298 | Embraer ERJ-190, A319, A320, A321, A350, A380, 787, 777 |
Virgin Atlantic | 43 | A330, A350, 787 |
easyJet | 194 | A319, A320, A321 |
Ryanair UK | 15 | 737 |
TUI Airways | 75 | 737, 787 |
The British allowances are considerably less than their widebody counterparts flying for the Big Three US-based airlines, which can total over half a million dollars in some cases. That said, it is a very high income for the United Kingdom. The British Airways pilot pay scale is broadly similar to Virgin Atlantic.
UK-Based Airlines
Within the British context, British Airways is unusual as it is the only airline with a full range of aircraft types. Virgin Atlantic only operates widebody A330neos, A350s, and 787s, meaning that all its First Officers and Captains have already progressed through their career paths to fly widebody jets. The low-cost carriers, easyJet and Ryanair UK, only operate narrowbody A320 family and Boeing 737s, with easyJet exclusively operating A320 family aircraft and the Boeing 737 being the exclusive jet of choice for Ryanair UK.
The leisure airline, TUI Airways, is the only UK-based airline after British Airways to operate both narrowbody and widebody aircraft (Boeing 787s and Boeing 737s). TUI UK has a fleet of 62 Boeing 737-800 and MAX 8 narrowbodies and a fleet of 12 Boeing 787-8 and 787-9 widebody aircraft.
British Airways has regional, narrowbody, widebody, and ultra-large widebody aircraft (more below). Overall, British Airways pilots have the most experience, and many pilots are former RAF pilots and long-career pilots. While they are perhaps the best paid of the UK-based airlines, the other airlines still offer competitive salaries. Virgin’s pilots are also very experienced, while Ryanair typically has the youngest pilot group among the major UK operators.
Other UK Pilot Benefits
Like pilots in the US, British pilots can expect a range of bonuses and allowances that boost their base pay. That said, this is an area where US pilots have an advantage. UK legacy airlines will typically contribute around 7–15% to pensions (vs around 16–18% by US legacy airlines). They can expect healthcare, excellent staff travel perks, and loss-of-licence insurance.
Some can have annual bonuses, but this is not as common as in the United States, while profit sharing is also uncommon on this side of the pond. It is also uncommon for UK pilots to enjoy the generous retention bonuses that some US pilots receive. When it comes to flying pay and allowances, typical payments include flying-hour pay, duty-hour pay, sector pay, overnight allowances, meal allowances, overseas expenses, time-away-from-base payments, and premium pay for working days off, with these topping the base pay up by 10% to 30% or more.
BALPA says that while it is largely assumed that pilots are well paid, only after several years’ experience and several promotions will pilots enjoy a good income with associated benefits. But it adds, “contracts are changing, and the big salaries associated with being a pilot are fast disappearing. Certainly the benefits packages on the whole are being considerably stripped down, with expensive items such as final salary pensions, permanent health insurance and private healthcare becoming rare.”
British Airways’ Fleet
British Airways is the flag carrier of the United Kingdom and operates the largest fleet in the country. It has an all-A320 family fleet of narrowbody aircraft, including 21 A319s, 95 A320s, and 31 A321s. That is a total of 147 narrowbody aircraft. These are complemented by a fleet of 20 regional Embraer ERJ-190s. One of the ERJ-190 principle purposes is to serve London City Airport, which is unable to operate larger narrowbody aircraft.
The Embraer fleet is operated by BA CityFlyer, a wholly owned subsidiary of British Airways. London City Airport’s physical constraints make smaller regional aircraft a better fit, with the airport’s larger certified aircraft being the Embraer E195-E2. British Airways has a mixed widebody fleet that includes 18 stretched Airbus A350-1000s and 12 Airbus A380 Superjumbos. As Lufthansa and Singapore Airlines have reduced their A380 fleets, BA’s A380 fleet is now tied with Singapore Airlines as the world’s second-largest Superjumbo fleet.
The backbone of British Airways’ widebody fleet is its Boeing aircraft. It has 59 Boeing 777s in service (including 43 777-200ERs and 16 Boeing 777-300ERs) and 42 Boeing 787 Dreamliners. The Dreamliner fleet consists of all three variants, including 12 Boeing 787-8s, 18 Boeing 787-9s, and 12 Boeing 787-10s. In total, this is a fleet of 131 widebody aircraft and is much larger than its rival, Virgin Atlantic’s fleet of 43 widebody aircraft.
