Podcast explores contract corporate pilot pay and career path

The fourth instalment of Aviation Start, the career-focused video podcast from FLYING, is presented by Jamail Larkins and looks at contract corporate flying. Jay Kadir, a 26-year-old pilot who flies the Gulfstream G-IV, is the guest.

Kadir said pilots can earn $50,000 or more in a single month. He has seen those figures himself and knows pilots who have reached them, but building that work is neither quick nor easy. Consistent trip assignments and an aircraft with a high day rate are both needed, he said.

Contract pilots are paid per day, and the rate reflects the aircraft. A single-engine piston such as a Bonanza A36 pays about $500 to $750 a day, he said, while newer Gulfstream and Bombardier Global jets can command as much as $4,500.

Kadir did not take the usual airline route. Raised largely in Dubai, he decided to learn to fly after summer trips to the United States on Boeing 777s and Airbus A380s. He finished his certificates in Bozeman, Montana, expecting the airlines to be the only career option, until he saw private jets on the ramp and watched friends fly contract corporate work.

Rather than instruct at a flight school, he instructed independently, which let him set his own rates and schedule. That freedom let him take contract second-in-command positions on the Eclipse 500, HondaJet and several Cessna Citation variants, including the 500, 501 and 525 series. About eighteen months ago he moved to the G-IV, which is now his main aircraft.

Larkins cited demand for the role. More than 59,000 corporate pilots fly in the United States today, he said, and close to 33,000 more will be needed over the coming decade.