Best Airline Pilot programs in Texas, ranked by enrollment
Pilot and navigate the flight of fixed-wing aircraft, usually on scheduled air carrier routes, for the transport of passengers and cargo. Requires Federal Air Transport certificate and rating for specific aircraft type used.
8 schools in Texas run programs that feed this job, graduating 160 people a year. The job pays a median of $215,150 in Texas across about 10,930 jobs (BLS OEWS May 2025).
Fields of study in Texas that lead to this job
Grouped at the 4-digit CIP level. Numbers are graduates per year in this state.
1 programs in Texas that lead to this job
Ranked by graduates per year in Texas (IPEDS completions). Graduate earnings and debt are national College Scorecard figures reported at the 4-digit CIP level, so specializations within one field share a figure. Each program also links to its own Texas page.
| # | Program | Graduates / yr | Share of pipeline | Schools | Grad earnings (1 yr) | Median debt |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | CIP 49.0102In Texas → | 160 | 100.0% | 8 | $41,774 | $23,500 |
Top 8 schools in Texas
Ranked by graduates per year into this job. Graduate earnings are reported for 2 of the 8 schools in this state.
All 8 schools in Texas
Every school in Texas with a program that feeds this job, ordered by graduates per year. Earnings are shown for the ranked schools above; open a school profile for the rest.
| School | City | Control | Graduates / yr | Feeder programs |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tarrant County College District | Fort Worth | Public | 51 | 1 |
| Baylor University | Waco | Private not-for-profit | 30 | 1 |
| Lone Star College System | The Woodlands | Public | 29 | 1 |
| Texas A&M University - Central Texas | Killeen | Public | 25 | 1 |
| Texas State Technical College | Waco | Public | 11 | 1 |
| Central Texas College | Killeen | Public | 10 | 1 |
| Stephen F Austin State University | Nacogdoches | Public | 3 | 1 |
| LeTourneau University | Longview | Private not-for-profit | 1 | 1 |
What airline pilots, copilots, and flight engineers earn in Texas
What people already working in this job earn (BLS OEWS May 2025). Not graduate earnings.
U.S. median $232,140. Texas pays below the national figure.
1.00× means the state has its expected share of these jobs.
Metro areas in Texas
Job outlook
Bureau of Labor Statistics Employment Projections, 2024 to 2034.
Growth and openings are national. The Bureau of Labor Statistics does not publish employment projections at state level, so these figures describe the occupation across the whole U.S., not this state alone.
How to get in
The full skills, tools, and day-to-day breakdown lives on the national Airline Pilots, Copilots, and Flight Engineers page.
How to become a Airline Pilot
Job zone 4 of 5 · SVP 7.0 to < 8.0- Typical entry education
- Bachelor's degree
- Work experience needed
- Less than 5 years
- On-the-job training
- Moderate-term on-the-job training
Most of these occupations require a four-year bachelor's degree, but some do not.
A considerable amount of work-related skill, knowledge, or experience is needed for these occupations. For example, an accountant must complete four years of college and work for several years in accounting to be considered qualified.
Employees in these occupations usually need several years of work-related experience, on-the-job training, and/or vocational training.
Top skills
The same job in other states
Where else this occupation employs the most people, and what it pays there.
Related careers in Texas
Every major mapped to this job
The official federal mapping behind the rankings above.
All 2 majors mapped to Airline Pilots, Copilots, and Flight Engineers2 of them graduated someone in the latest IPEDS year. NCES CIP 2020 → SOC 2018 crosswalk.+
- 49.0102Airline/Commercial/Professional Pilot and Flight Crew
- 49.0108Flight Instructor
Common questions
Answers for people weighing airline pilots, copilots, and flight engineers programs in Texas.
What degree do you need to become an Airline Pilot?+
Bachelor's degree is the typical entry-level education BLS reports for this occupation. The most common program people actually graduate from is Airline/Commercial/Professional Pilot and Flight Crew, which awarded 160 degrees in Texas in 2024-25, 100.0% of everyone graduating from a program that feeds this career.
Which college majors lead to becoming an Airline Pilot?+
The NCES CIP-to-SOC crosswalk maps 1 programs to this occupation. The largest are Air Transportation. Together they graduate about 160 people a year in Texas.
How much do airline pilots, copilots, and flight engineers earn in Texas?+
The median is $215,150 a year (BLS OEWS May 2025). That is 7.3% below the U.S. median of $232,140. This is pay for people already working in the occupation, not the same thing as graduate earnings one year after finishing a degree.
Is demand for airline pilots, copilots, and flight engineers growing?+
BLS projects a +3.9% change in employment between 2024 and 2034, about as fast as average, with roughly 11,700 openings a year nationally once retirements and job changes are counted.
How many schools offer programs for this career in Texas?+
8 institutions in Texas reported graduates from at least one of the 1 programs that feed this occupation in IPEDS 2024-25. Rankings on this page use graduates per year, because the federal data publishes no enrollment count by program.
What other job titles do airline pilots, copilots, and flight engineers work under?+
Employers advertise this work under many names. O*NET records Pilot, Captain, Airline Captain, First Officer (FO) among the most commonly reported, all mapping to SOC 53-2011.
About the data on this page
Rankings use IPEDS completions 2024–25, degrees awarded per year. That is the closest federal measure of how many people a program puts into a career, because no federal dataset publishes enrollment by program. Wages and employment come from BLS OEWS May 2025, growth and openings from BLS Employment Projections 2024-34, and which majors lead to which jobs from the NCES CIP 2020 to SOC 2018 crosswalk. Occupation descriptions, tasks, skills and tools are O*NET 30.3 (CC BY 4.0, U.S. Department of Labor/ETA).
BLS Occupational Employment & Wage Statistics
May 2025Wages, employment counts, location quotients and metro breakdowns.
BLS Employment Projections
2024–34Projected growth, annual openings and typical entry-level education.
IPEDS Completions
2024-25 (provisional)Graduates per year by program and institution — the ranking metric.
College Scorecard, Field of Study
2020-21 cohortsMedian graduate earnings one year after completion, and median debt.
Census Post-Secondary Employment Outcomes
latest availableGraduate earnings 1/5/10 years out, where the state participates.
NCES CIP 2020 and the CIP-to-SOC 2018 crosswalk
CIP 2020 / SOC 2018Which college programs officially lead to this occupation.
O*NET Database 30.3
30.3Tasks, skills, knowledge, tools, job zone and alternate job titles.
Official source →CC BY 4.0, U.S. Department of Labor / ETA
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