How do pilots become airline pilots without going into the military?

In most countries, student pilots go to a flight school -

They either pay for the training, which is very expensive -

In some countries, some airlines sponsor student pilots and they might be hired by the airline -

In the United States, to become an airline pilot, your first go to a flight school -

It takes about 1 year to qualify for a commercial (that is not airline) pilot license -

Then that pilot works few years as a flight instructor or air taxi pilot to get at least 1,500 flight hours -

Finally he/she passes the tests as "airline pilot" after having gained experience -

Do not forget that in the United States, a 4-year college degree is required to be airline pilot -

So pilot training and education is very expensive - and is well over $200,000 tuition + expenses -

Bear in mind that the first years as flight instructor or air taxi pilots have very low salaries -

He/she then applies with airlines - generally a regional airline first -

But getting trained as pilot in the military and serve 10 years as pilot is still the best -

And the most certain way to be selected by a major airline -

Remember many pilots apply to airlines, but only the best qualified are selected -

First, you PAY for the first 250 flight hours and training that is required to qualify for a Commercial Pilot's certificate. That costs somewhere between $75,000 and $100,000 (US) and takes about a year. THEN you find a part-time job that pays about $15 per hour, teaching other people how to fly, or flying air taxi in small airplanes, or maybe hauling FedEx between small airports in a single engine cargo plane... Basically you do whatever you can find to build flight hours until you have AT LEAST 1500 hours and can qualify for an ATP certificate. That takes MOST young pilots 6-8 years of flying anything and anywhere they can.

Oh... Did I mention that if you want to work for an American airline company, you'll also need a four-year college degree. Once you have your college degree AND qualified for the ATP certificate, you can start applying for airline pilot jobs. IF you can manage to get hired, you'll start out as a junior 2nd officer, earning less than $25,000 per year. I'm told that the AVERAGE starting age for junior airline pilots is around 35 years old.

My wife's 21 year-old son is an assistant manager at one of our local McDonald's restaurants. He earns $32,000 per year, PLUS profit sharing. He's a high school drop-out.

After getting a commercial licence they can built up hours doing "General Aviation". Skydivers / Tourist flights / flight instructing etc. Pay is rubbish, but you are flying and putting hours in your log book. With a bit more experience you can get a job as a co-pilot on on a small regional airline, flying turboprops. A few years doing that and you have the experience and certificates to fly the larger planes.

No one said it was simple or easy, but if can be done.

Flight School

You need a lot of money! for training.

you would need to get your

private license

comercial license

instrument ratings

multi eninge rating

Instructor certificate..

once you get all those you can begin teaching then you start to get paid to fly. by other students.

eventually you can get enough hours to work your way up to the airlines.

They go to a flight school and get a license, then do enough miscellaneous flight work to get the hours to apply for an airline gig.

Building hours elsewhere. Instructing, corporate, charter.

Education, knowledge, ability.

Flight school.