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Pilots and flight attendants are the two types of crew members that you’ll see working a commercial flight, with each serving a vital safety role. However, pilots receive far higher salaries because the job is far more specialized, requiring a significant amount of skill earned through extensive prior training and experience. In contrast, there’s a much lower barrier to entry for flight attendants, and while the job itself is often quite demanding, flight attendants are paid quite little compared to their colleagues.
As the two types of crew members present on passenger airliners, pilots and flight attendants are scheduled similarly, while their compensation is also structured similarly. There is more of a clear line of progression for pilots, who eventually aim to become captains and upgrade to larger planes, whereas flight attendants shift between different positions and aircraft types more often. However, while pilots are usually the ones earning the big bucks, senior cabin crew members can earn close to what junior flight crew brings home in some instances.
Purser Salaries At Major Airlines
Flight attendants at several US airlines have received new contracts with pay increases over the past few years, with those at 
American Airlines, 
Delta Air Lines (whose flight attendants are not unionized but have received raises), and 
United Airlines earning the highest salaries. In addition to the base hourly rates being higher than other airlines, these three carriers also operate the most long-haul routes in the US. On their own, these trips don’t always come with higher earning rates, but they are more productive since they involve less time on the ground.
There’s nothing stopping a junior flight attendant from working trips with long-haul routes, but lines are awarded based on seniority, and you’ll typically need high seniority within your base to regularly operate long-haul trips. Meanwhile, the purser position can be bid upon for any trip, but it does require additional training beforehand, and a purser position is, again, awarded based on seniority. As such, it’ll only be an airline’s most senior flight attendants who can routinely operate long-haul flights as a purser.
As of the time of writing, American’s hourly pay scale tops out at $84.50, Delta’s rate tops out at $86.32, and United’s rate tops out at $87.47. When considering how often cabin crew members work, as well as other pay sources like per diem, a senior flight attendant will usually take home around $100,000 to $120,000 per year. If you have the seniority to regularly hold a purser position on long-haul trips, then you can bring in close to $140,000 or more per year, which is close to some regional airline captains.
Regional Airline Pilot Salaries
The previously stated salaries can only be earned by senior flight attendants at the US’ largest carriers, and while they do exceed regional pilot salaries, the regional airlines are where airline pilots start their careers. In recent years, regional airline pilots have seen major pay increases, with new first officers now bringing home between $90,000 and $100,000 at most carriers. This increases gradually with each year, and most pilots at regional airlines can bid up to a captain position within two to four years.
Regional captains will usually start in their new position earning $140,000 to $160,000 per year, which is close to or slightly more than what a senior flight attendant at the legacy carriers earns doing long-haul flights as a purser. However, this is a relatively new development in the industry, as regional airlines implemented significant pay increases post-COVID, and these are technically temporary at some carriers. Before COVID, regional salaries were as low as $50,000 a year.
US Legacy Carriers | US Hybrid Airlines | US Budget Airlines |
|---|---|---|
Alaska Airlines | JetBlue | Allegiant Air |
American Airlines | Southwest Airlines | Avelo Airlines |
Delta Air Lines | Breeze Airways | |
Hawaiian Airlines | Frontier | |
United Airlines | Sun Country |
Mainline salaries have also increased in the 2020s, but particularly at the top end of the pay scale. Starting salaries at mainline are relatively close to regional airlines’ pilot salaries today, whereas this was not the case before the pandemic. Largely, this is due to a shortage of qualified pilots in the regional airline pipeline, resulting in salary increases to boost the appeal of these jobs, as well as signing bonuses and flow programs with legacy carriers. With the shortage now being minimized, some of these programs and benefits are now being scaled back.
Career Progression As A Flight Attendant
Anyone looking to make a career as a flight attendant will need to start at the regional airlines, working for an airline that operates under the Alaska Horizon, American Eagle, Delta Connection, or United Express brands. Some regional carriers are direct subsidiaries of the mainline airlines (Envoy Air and American as an example), while others are technically independent but only operate for one brand (GoJet Airlines and United). SkyWest and Republic, meanwhile, operate for multiple regional brands.
Starting salaries at the regional carriers range from $27 to roughly $30 per hour, which translates to an annual salary of roughly $40,000. This is significantly below the US average salary, and it’s an extremely difficult wage to live on in the US’s largest cities, such as New York and San Francisco. Cities like these also tend to go junior, which either requires new flight attendants to commute or face a difficult financial situation for the first several years of their career before earning a truly livable wage.
US Regional Airline Brand | Airline Partners |
|---|---|
Alaska Horizon | Horizon Air, SkyWest Airlines |
American Eagle | Envoy Air, Piedmont Airlines, PSA Airlines, Republic Airways, SkyWest Airlines |
Delta Connection | Endeavor Air, Republic Airways, SkyWest Airlines |
United Express | CommuteAir, GoJet Airlines, Mesa Airlines, Republic Airways, SkyWest Airlines |
Flight attendants are generally permitted to work up to 14 hours in a given day, with no specific restriction on flight time. This is an extremely long duty period compared to a typical job on the ground, and flight attendants are not always paid their full salary throughout the entire day. Depending on how the trip is scheduled, this may include multiple flights, resulting in multiple periods on the ground. While flight attendants at the US legacy carriers earn boarding pay (50% of the standard hourly rate), this can still significantly cut into overall earnings.
The Importance Of Seniority For Flight Attendants
Career progression within an airline is entirely dependent on a flight attendant’s time with the company. Your date of hire relative to other flight attendants on the seniority list determines your base hourly rate and ability to hold a specific base, while your relative seniority within a base essentially determines your schedule, which indirectly dictates your pay. This is because different schedules may be more productive than others, allowing crew members to work more hours in a month than others, but more productive trips go to senior.
Flight attendants can work either a reserve schedule or a line for the month, with a reserve schedule essentially placing the crew member on call for most of the month. Reserve schedules come with a limited number of hard days off and generally don’t net as many credit hours, so these go to the most junior crew members. A line, meanwhile, is a set schedule for the month, with the company either pre-building lines for the month or operating a Preferential Bidding System (PBS) where crew members build their own lines for the month.
Most US carriers now use PBS, where flight attendants create a line using factors like credit hours, days off, layover destinations, trip length, and more. The PBS system then attempts to award a line as close as possible to what was requested based on seniority. As a whole, relative seniority within the base dictates how many credit hours a flight attendant may be able to bid for their line, but it also determines a cabin crew member’s days off, layover cities, and trip length for the month.
Life As A Senior Flight Attendant
Unlike pilots, flight attendants do not have a mandatory retirement age in the US, and can work essentially for as long as they’re physically able to. It’s common to see cabin crew members in the US work until their late 60s or 70s; the world record for the longest-serving flight attendant is held by Betty Nash, who passed away in 2024 at the age of 88 after nearly 67 years as a flight attendant, having never officially retired from her role with American Airlines.
US airline flight attendant pay scales typically top out at 12 or 13 years with the company, but the added seniority has more benefits than just a higher hourly rate. Senior flight attendants can hold a purser position more often and can bid for more productive lines, therefore boosting their monthly income even if their hourly rate remains largely constant. In addition, higher seniority increases a crew member’s ability to pick up a premium trip with higher pay, and naturally also increases chances to get your desired days off.
While increased seniority is often used to bid for productive long-haul trips, this is mainly a personal preference. Betty Nash used her position at the top of American’s seniority list mainly to fly between New York, Boston, and Washington, DC., which is hardly the most productive schedule, but it allowed her to be home every night to take care of her disabled son.
