The Datum Report

Occupation 3511 · Associate professional occupations

Aircraft pilots and air traffic controllers

Half of full-time aircraft pilots and air traffic controllers in the UK earn more than £82,746 a year, and half earn less.

Aircraft pilots and air traffic controllers navigate and pilot aircraft, prepare flight plans, authorise flight departures and arrivals, maintain radio, radar and/or visual contact with aircraft to ensure the safe movement of air traffic, check, regulate, adjust and test engines and other equipment prior to take-off and give flying lessons.

How people enter it

Entrants with GCSEs/S grades and A levels/H grades, a BTEC/ SQA award or equivalent qualification can apply for an airline sponsorship. Private residential training as a pilot is available to candidates with GCSEs/S grades or appropriate BTEC/SQA or other certificates/diplomas or to holders of Private Pilots Licences who have 700 hours flying experience. Training lasts up to 15 months and consists of courses of study and flying instruction. Airlines may have additional age and height requirements. Air traffic controllers training lasts 74 weeks including study and practical experience. Entrants must be 18 to hold a Student Licence and 21 for a full air traffic controller licence awarded by the Civil Aviation Authority. Normal colour vision is required for pilots and air traffic controllers and candidates also undergo a medical examination.

What the work involves

• studies flight plan and makes any necessary adjustments
• directs or undertakes checks on engines, instruments, control panels, cargo distribution, fuel supplies, aircraft's stability, response to controls and overall performance
• directs or undertakes the operation of controls to fly airplanes and helicopters, complying with air traffic control and aircraft operating procedures
• monitors fuel consumption, air pressure, engine performance and other indicators during flight and advises pilot of any factors that affect the navigation or performance of the aircraft
• maintains radio contact and discusses weather conditions with air traffic controllers
• directs the movement of aircraft and maintains radio and/or radar or visual contact en-route to its destination, in and out of controlled airspace or into holding areas ready for landing
• gives landing Instructions to pilot and monitors descent
• plans flight route, calculate fuel consumption and optimum flying height and obtains information on weather and other conditions, such as cargo distribution
• handles emergencies, unscheduled traffic and other unanticipated incidents
• accompanies pupil on training flights and demonstrates flying techniques

Also called

Airline pilot · Air traffic controller · First officer (airlines) · Flight engineer · Flight planner · Flying instructor · Helicopter pilot

What it pays

How pay has changed

Median gross annual pay for aircraft pilots and air traffic controllers, full-time employees, 2023 to 2025. Each point is that year's ASHE April snapshot as published — revisions are not backfilled into earlier years, and a year ONS withheld is a gap rather than a joined line.

ONS, ASHE Table 14 - occupation by four-digit SOC (national). Table

Year-on-year change

The change from each year to the next, in per cent, computed from the figures in the chart above — so the two cannot disagree.

ONS, ASHE Table 14 - occupation by four-digit SOC (national). Table

Pay by region

Median gross annual pay for full-time employees, ranked, against the UK figure. 2 of 11 regions are published: ONS withholds a cell where the survey sample cannot support it, and those are shown as gaps rather than dropped — an absent region is not a region without the work in it.

ONS, ASHE Table 14 - occupation by four-digit SOC (national). Period 2025. Table

Every regional figure

ONS does not publish occupational pay below region. Cells the survey could not support are shown as withheld, with its reason — adding a region split to a specific occupation leaves roughly a tenth of cells publishable.

Common questions

Classified alongside this

Ship and hovercraft officers