Salaries in aviation rose by nearly 10% in 2019

According to the ATAG (Air Transport Action Group), 62.7 million jobs are supported worldwide in aviation and related tourism. Of this, 9.9 million people work directly in the aviation industry.

Careers in the aviation and aerospace industries are some of the best-paid jobs. Naturally, not every worker in the sector earns the same salary. There are certain factors which have a significant influence on salary levels: the nature of the job, the area of operation, the length of professional experience, the level of prior training and education, and the region can all give rise to large variations in salary. The size of the company also plays a significant role.

We have collected data on salaries in the aviation industry, based on the job adverts recruiters posted in 2018-19, and compared them with the data collected in 2017-18.

In 2019, the overall average salary figure increased by 9.52%. According to our figures, the highest paying profession in the aviation industry, based off the job adverts posted in 2018-19 was Hardware Engineer, where the average salary was £92,071.43. This figure increased significantly from 2018 too, by 10.39%.

The profession which saw the highest percentage increase in average salary from 2018 to 2019 was Environmental Health and Safety jobs, rising by 37.84% from £32,000.00 to £44,110.00.

In contrast, the profession that saw the largest decrease in 2019 was Airport Agent - the average salary decreased by 27.09%, dropping from £25,631.58 to £18,687.50.

Moving towards airline crew roles, Pilot average salary increased in 2019 by 22.04%. Recruiters recognise that there is a shortage of top talent for this profession, and are therefore attracting new and experienced candidates with more competitive salaries. The average salary increased from £58,964.69 to £71,962.86.

More specifically, recruiters looking for experienced Captains offered an average salary of £81,493.54 in 2019, which was a 12.78% increase from 2018.

First Officer average salaries on our site increased by 4.35%, from £55,973.84 to £58,409.96.

Cabin Crew salaries advertised on Aviation Job Search’s site decreased by 15.14% in 2019, dropping from £24,750.00 to £21,001.68.

The overall salary figures for Engineers on our site increased by 4.79% from £51,392.99 to £53,855.55.

As we look deeper into the different roles of engineering within the aviation industry, we see further increases in average salaries offered by recruiters in 2019, for Flight Engineers,
Airworthiness Engineers, B1 Licensed Engineers and Hardware Engineers.

Other specialist engineering positions which experienced growth in salary include Aeronautical Engineers, Human Factors Engineers, Aerodynamics Engineers, Structures and Stress Engineers, B2 Licensed Engineers, Software Engineers, Safety Engineers and Design Engineers. 

Data acquired between 2019 and 2019.  
Based on Aviation Job Search database figures.

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