Airline/Commercial/Professional Pilot and Flight Crew

Types of Degrees Airline/Commercial/Professional Pilot and Flight Crew Majors Are Getting

The following table lists how many airline/commercial/professional pilot & flight crew graduations there were for each degree level during the last year for which data was available.

Education Level	Number of Grads
Associate Degree	765
Bachelor’s Degree	760
Basic Certificate	375
Undergraduate Certificate	118
Graduate Certificate	11

What Airline/Commercial/Professional Pilot and Flight Crew Majors Need to Know

In an O*NET survey, airline/commercial/professional pilot and flight crew majors were asked to rate what knowledge areas, skills, and abilities were important in their occupations. These answers were weighted on a scale of 1 to 5 with 5 being the most important.

Knowledge Areas for Airline/Commercial/Professional Pilot and Flight Crew Majors

This major prepares you for careers in which these knowledge areas are important:

• Transportation - Knowledge of principles and methods for moving people or goods by air, rail, sea, or road, including the relative costs and benefits.
• Geography - Knowledge of principles and methods for describing the features of land, sea, and air masses, including their physical characteristics, locations, interrelationships, and distribution of plant, animal, and human life.
• Customer and Personal Service - Knowledge of principles and processes for providing customer and personal services. This includes customer needs assessment, meeting quality standards for services, and evaluation of customer satisfaction.
• English Language - Knowledge of the structure and content of the English language including the meaning and spelling of words, rules of composition, and grammar.
• Mathematics - Knowledge of arithmetic, algebra, geometry, calculus, statistics, and their applications.

Skills for Airline/Commercial/Professional Pilot and Flight Crew Majors

airline/commercial/professional pilot and flight crew majors are found most commonly in careers in which the following skills are important:

• Operation and Control - Controlling operations of equipment or systems.
• Operation Monitoring - Watching gauges, dials, or other indicators to make sure a machine is working properly.
• Monitoring - Monitoring/Assessing performance of yourself, other individuals, or organizations to make improvements or take corrective action.
• Critical Thinking - Using logic and reasoning to identify the strengths and weaknesses of alternative solutions, conclusions or approaches to problems.
• Active Listening - Giving full attention to what other people are saying, taking time to understand the points being made, asking questions as appropriate, and not interrupting at inappropriate times.

Abilities for Airline/Commercial/Professional Pilot and Flight Crew Majors

As you progress with your airline/commercial/professional pilot and flight crew degree, there are several abilities you should pick up that will help you in whatever related career you choose. These abilities include:

• Control Precision - The ability to quickly and repeatedly adjust the controls of a machine or a vehicle to exact positions.
• Problem Sensitivity - The ability to tell when something is wrong or is likely to go wrong. It does not involve solving the problem, only recognizing there is a problem.
• Response Orientation - The ability to choose quickly between two or more movements in response to two or more different signals (lights, sounds, pictures). It includes the speed with which the correct response is started with the hand, foot, or other body part.
• Near Vision - The ability to see details at close range (within a few feet of the observer).
• Far Vision - The ability to see details at a distance.

What Can You Do With a Airline/Commercial/Professional Pilot and Flight Crew Major?

People with a airline/commercial/professional pilot and flight crew degree often go into the following careers:

Job Title	Job Growth Rate	Median Salary
Airline Pilots, Copilots, and Flight Engineers	3.5%	$140,340
Commercial Pilots	3.7%	$82,240

Who Is Getting a Bachelor’s Degree in Airline/Commercial/Professional Pilot and Flight Crew?

This major tends to be male dominated. About 86% of recent graduates are men.

Racial-Ethnic Diversity

At the countrywide level, the racial-ethnic distribution of airline/commercial/professional pilot and flight crew majors is as follows:

Race/Ethnicity	Number of Grads
Asian	34
Black or African American	12
Hispanic or Latino	54
White	554
International Students	54
Other Races/Ethnicities	52

Geographic Diversity

Students from other countries are interested in Airline/Commercial/Professional Pilot and Flight Crew, too. About 7.1% of those with this major are international students.

Amount of Education Required for Careers Related to Airline/Commercial/Professional Pilot and Flight Crew

Some careers associated with airline/commercial/professional pilot and flight crew require an advanced degree while some may not even require a bachelor’s. In general, the more advanced your degree the more career options will open up to you. However, there is significant time and money that needs to be invested into your education so weigh the pros and cons.

How much schooling do you really need to compete in today’s job market? People currently working in careers related to airline/commercial/professional pilot and flight crew have obtained the following education levels.

Education Level	Percentage of Workers
High School Diploma - or the equivalent (for example, GED)	14.7%
Post-Secondary Certificate - awarded for training completed after high school (for example, in agriculture or natural resources, computer services, personal or culinary services, engineering technologies, healthcare, construction trades, mechanic and repair technologies, or precision production)	22.2%
Some College Courses	2.8%
Associate’s Degree (or other 2-year degree)	11.8%
Bachelor’s Degree	40.4%
Master’s Degree	6.2%
First Professional Degree - awarded for completion of a program that: requires at least 2 years of college work before entrance into the program, includes a total of at least 6 academic years of work to complete, and provides all remaining academic requirements to begin practice in a profession.	0.8%

Online Airline/Commercial/Professional Pilot and Flight Crew Programs

The following table lists the number of programs by degree level, along with how many schools offered online courses in the field.

Degree Level	Colleges Offering Programs	Colleges Offering Online Classes
Certificate (Less Than 1 Year)	0	0
Certificate (1-2 years)	23	1
Certificate (2-4 Years)	3	0
Associate’s Degree	84	2
Bachelor’s Degree	1	0
Post-Baccalaureate	0	0
Master’s Degree	0	0
Post-Master’s	0	0
Doctor’s Degree (Research)	0	0
Doctor’s Degree (Professional Practice)	0	0
Doctor’s Degree (Other)	0	0

Majors Related to Airline/Commercial/Professional Pilot and Flight Crew

You may also be interested in one of the following majors related to airline/commercial/professional pilot and flight crew.

Major	Number of Grads
General Aeronautics/Aviation/Aerospace Science & Technology	5,709
Aviation/Airway Management & Operations	1,864
Other Air Transportation	310
Air Traffic Controller	245
Remote Aircraft Pilot	142
Flight Instructor	93
Airline Flight Attendant	53

References

*The racial-ethnic minorities count is calculated by taking the total number of students and subtracting white students, international students, and students whose race/ethnicity was unknown. This number is then divided by the total number of students at the school to obtain the racial-ethnic minorities percentage.

• College Factual
• College Scorecard
• National Center for Education Statistics
• O*NET Online
• U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
• Usual Weekly Earnings of Wage and Salary Workers First Quarter 2020

More about our data sources and methodologies.