So You Make as Much as a Delta Captain, Do You?

Editor’s Note: An earlier version of this post implied that Delta might be able to reduce their profit sharing payout by choosing to pay off extra debt this year. I was wrong. (If you have any illusions that I’m perfect, I’ll introduce you to my kids. They’ll disabuse you of that notion with great haste.) I’d forgotten that when the Delta ALPA MEC negotiated to add profit sharing to the Delta contract, they very carefully crafted the language to preclude this type of loophole. That language is part of the reason Delta’s profit sharing reliably dwarfs that of many competitors. Don’t base your contract negotiations on straight pay rates. Soft pay and contract language matter!

I think we pilots tell ourselves a lot of lies. I’m shocked at how often I hear the following from regional or ULCC pilots: “I’m not even going to bother applying at a major airline. I make as much as a Delta Captain now!”

To be fair, it’s definitely possible to accomplish this at other airlines. However, I believe that Delta pilots can earn great money for less days away from home, while enjoying better work rules and Quality of Life (QOL).

As pilots, we all live according to my father’s wise words: “We’re all entitled to our own opinions, even if yours is wrong.” My personal opinion isn’t necessarily any more valuable to you than yours is to me. As such, I’ve created a spreadsheet to provide some hard numbers for your consideration. Math doesn’t care about what either of us thinks.

You can get a copy of the spreadsheet here. Please, use “File -> Download” or “File -> Make a Copy” to get your own personal version to edit. Please don’t ask for permissions to edit the master copy. Nobody wants to watch your gonkulations in real time.

Disclaimer:

This post and this calculator could come off as bragging. That’s not my intent. If you’re currently flying at a regional, or Tier 2 airline you are absolutely competitive at Delta right now. Their hiring department is running at MCT and they’re hiring for a variety of experience and backgrounds. That includes you. The same goes for United, American, and Southwest. There are many great reasons to stay where you are. However, if you’re using money as a justification, you may be wrong.

Also, please take this away from this post: it’s not just money. It’s money per day spent at work, considering overall work rules and QOL. I assert that the only place you can max-perform all of those is at a major airline.

What Are We Calculating?

This calculator has Delta’s pay tables built in (including the pay raises for 2024-2026). You select or input the cells in yellow, and the calculator tells you how much a Delta pilot makes given those assumptions.

Note: profit sharing may not be a thing at your company, but it’s a big deal at Delta. They’re on track to post profits above the $5B mark, and that could trigger profit sharing at or above 10%. You should run scenarios with and without profit sharing.

The second section is for a related post I wrote helping Delta pilots decide when/whether to upgrade. I recommend leaving it alone so you can see what things would look like if you were a Delta FO. Or, put “1” in the light yellow cell for “Years at Airline” to see what your new hire situation might be at Delta.

The third section is where you put your current information. The cells for Aircraft, Seat, and Years at Airline don’t matter because I don’t have any formulas set up to use them. (You’re welcome to input your pay tables on new tabs, copy my code, and make your version of this calculator even fancier!)

What matters is that you set realistic values for Profit Sharing, your company’s 401K contribution, your Average Daily Guarantee (ADG, or the number of hours of pay you normally credit per day of work), and your hourly pay rate.

Once you have those numbers input, the calculator assumes you want to make as much per year as a Delta Captain and works backwards. It factors out your company’s 401K contributions and profit sharing, and determines how much money you’d have to earn each month to reach that goal. Then, using the hourly pay rate and ADG you gave it, the calculator show how many hours of credit you’ll have to earn each month. Assuming you fly the ADG number you input, it also shows how many days per month you have to work to match your Delta peers.

Let’s try some examples. I’m pulling my information from the always excellent AirlinePilotCentral.com. If my numbers are off, I apologize. Please use your superior data to get answers that are accurate and useful for you.

Spirit vs Delta

I have a couple friends at Spirit right now. When I wrote to congratulate one and ask whether he’d already submitted his Delta app, he said, “No way dude! Spirit’s way better and I make as much as a Delta Captain anyway.” He must be working a lot…especially a lot more than I am.

Let’s start with something outlandish and assume he was able to upgrade to Captain at Spirit in his first year (APC puts the junior Captain as a 2019 hire) and that he gets Year 12 pay in year one and only ever flies the A321at $306/hr. Spirit isn’t known for their profit sharing, and they lost money this quarter, so we’ll assume zero profit sharing for them.

We’ll compare to a Year 1 Captain at Delta (very common right now) flying the A321ceo, and assume 0% profit sharing (unlikely this year.)

Here’s how things stack up:

Although this situation is quite unrealistic, the disparity isn’t that great. It shows that the most senior Captains at Spirit only have to work 83 hours to equal what a Year 1 Delta Captain makes in 74 hours, by spending an extra 4 days per month at work.

For a more realistic comparison, let’s consider the case of my direct peers at Spirit. That means Year 8 pay with me on the B737-900ER and them on the A321. I’ll probably get 10% or higher profit sharing in 2024 and they probably won’t, but we’ll assume zero for both of us. I tend to credit an average of more than 85 hours per month through our contract’s wonderful soft pay provisions and by picking up the occasional premium trip. My trips tend toward efficiency, so I block at least 6.25 hours per day spent at work, on average. Here’s how we balance out:

It appears that my peers have to credit 23 more hours than me per month, spending as many as 10 more days at work per month than I do. Including 10% profit sharing for me widens that gap by another 10 hours of credit and another two days of work.

While premium pay would help close that gap in fewer days, this is a lot of extra work and a lot of extra days on the road just to break even. Spirit definitely has some advantageous work rules in some areas. However, I feel like the contracts at Delta and United beat Spirit’s contract overall. I feel like there’d have to be some pretty compelling and unique contract language at Spirit to make up for this difference.

Delta vs. Allegiant

Allegiant offers some compelling reasons to forego employment at a major airline. Almost all of their flying is one-day out-and-back trips. They have pilot bases at some truly amazing locations like Allentown/Bethlehem, PA, Asheville, NC, and others. Living in Tampa, I could work for them and drive to the St. Petersburg, FL, airport for work every day instead of commuting to NYC. They also have a base at Fort Walton Beach/Eglin AFB, FL, which would be vastly superior to commuting anywhere from what may be the densest population of retired military aviators on the planet.

Allegiant also has small pilot groups at each base. Assuming those pilots are all pleasant to work with, it would be fantastic to enjoy a tight-knit relationship at your base.

That said, these pilots give up a lot when it comes to pay. APC shows Allegiant’s top line Captain pay at $230 per hour. Compared to most other US Airbus operators, that figure is abysmal. APC also shows that Allegiant only matches 401K contributions up to a maximum of 10%. That’s far below the industry average. Let’s see how this stacks up against a Delta Captain flying an Airbus with the same number of years of service:

The Delta pilot works 74 hours per month and makes $372K. The Allegiant Captain who has flown the exact same aircraft for the same number of years would have to credit 122 hours, which could take nearly 26 days per work at minimum guarantee. APC says that Allegiant pays 130% for everything over 81 hours, which is a calculation beyond the scope of my spreadsheet. Still, this means nearly twice as many days at work for the same amount of money.

We can adjust our calculator to consider a move to Delta by setting the DAL Captain hours at 45 per month. This yields a reasonable 74.7 hours per month for a current Allegiant Captain and puts annual income around $227K.

If that Captain moved to Delta, they’d need to credit 139 hours per month as an A320 FO to make what they were getting at Allegiant. If you read yesterday’s post, you’ll see that’s actually pretty doable. It’s also worth noting that second year pay at Delta is a 50%+ increase, and Captain upgrade is available in less than a year at Delta if a transferring Captain needed to restore their income quickly.

Money absolutely is not everything. If a pilot has been at Allegiant for 12+ years, they probably have their reasons all figured out. However, if you want or need finances to be a significant part of your career decision calculus, there’s no comparison between these two companies.

One side note here is that there’s a viable alternative to the kind of home basing offered at Allegiant (and maybe soon at Frontier.) When I flew the A220 the first leg of almost every trip NYC to either IAH or DFW. I did more layovers in those two cities during my time as an A220 pilot than I’ve laid over in any other location in my entire career.

I once flew a trip with an FO who lived in Houston. He was looking forward to going home on two of our three layovers that trip. I asked whether he’d applied for United and Southwest to be based at home. He said, “Hell no! Think about it. We’re NYC based, but when we leave NYC we usually don’t get back there until the end of our trips. I’m senior enough on this jet to get a Houston layover every trip I fly. This trip has two. If I worked at one of those companies, I’d never get another Houston layover again.”

I think this is a great counterpoint to the industry adage that all commuting is bad. Most of Allegiant’s bases are locations where a relatively junior Delta pilot could reliably bid for layovers on every trip. If you want time at home, you can get it even if you aren’t based at home. It’s worth running the numbers to consider what that would look like.

Delta vs. PSA

I understand when I hear about pilots not moving from companies with unique selling points.

• It’d be tough to be living in Hawaii and flying for Hawiian (until the new Alaska merger forces you into an Anchorage commute, but I digress…). 
• A U-28 reservist flying for Allegiant out of KVPS is a match made in heaven. 
• A friend of mine fell in love with Fairbanks during Red Flag Alaska one year. He moved up there, joined the KC-135 unit, bought a C-170 on floats, and has been flying the Whale for Atlas ever since. There’s no reason for him to go anywhere else.

One of the few arguments I simply cannot stand to hear is when regional airline pilots assert that they don’t see the value in moving up to a major.

On one hand, I get it: if you’ve been at a regional forever, you probably have great seniority. You have your company, your contract, and your schedule figured out. You might be a Line Check Airman, meaning you’ve recently enjoyed pay rates as high as $427 per hour. You may live in base, with the ability to pick up trips at leisure.

And yet, I have only ever heard of a couple regional airline contract provisions that seemed palatable to me. Almost every other provision my FOs tell me about sounds egregious. Regional pilots get treated poorly.

Regional flying tends to be a lot of work too. Sure, the most senior pilots may be able to score the longest legs at the company, flying Magnolia Maniacs from NYC to Waco, TX, and back for 6-7 hours of pay every day. Most regional pilots are grinding it out with numerous short legs, never enough fuel, and suffering the lowest priority of any aircraft in the system.

There’s also so much turnover at the regionals right now that things are getting desperate. PSA even convinced FedEx management to try and push their B777 pilots down to the regionals. The memeatic derision for that one was as hilariously brutal as this proposal was…tone deaf.

Let’s run the calculator. The PSA senior pilot won’t want to be an FO again, so our first scenario assumes they stoop as low as possible at Delta and take a B717 Captain seat. Note that the PSA pay charts top out at 19+ years of service, and ADG at most regionals is closer to 4 hours than 5.25.

The hourly pay rates alone tell us a lot: $296 at Delta vs. $217 at PSA. It looks like our senior regional Captain has to credit at least 110 hours every month to equal the income of a first-year B717 Captain at Delta. At regular pay, this would mean working almost every day of the month at the regionals, though premium pay options would decrease that number somewhat. If you assume a Year 1 upgrade on the B737 or A321ceo, the difference widens by an additional 15 hours.

Let’s assume two PSA Captains read this now and one goes to Delta immediately while the other decides to wait 3 years to apply to Delta. By the time PSA Captain #2 leaves, the differences in their situations are impressive:

A Year 3 B737 Captain at Delta will have no problem crediting at least 85 hours per month. At 2026 pay rates, they’ll be up to $363 per hour while the PSA pilots will be at the same $217. In order to match their Delta peer, the PSA stalwart would have to credit 154 hours per month. Even with premium pay, that’s a lot of extra work.

Again, I don’t mind a pilot sticking at a regional if they have a lot of compelling reasons to do so. However, if money is a priority, or you want money plus time at home, there is no excuse for staying at a regional.

Takeaways

What does all this mean?

When you hear someone say, “I make as much as a Delta Captain,” at best they aren’t telling you the whole story. At worst, they’re lying to themselves.

In order to make as much as a Delta Captain anywhere else, you’re either spending a lot more days at work or you have a great system for earning premium pay. The latter is awesome, but the former is not.

Major airlines (Delta, United, American, Southwest, FedEx, and UPS) aren’t the right fit for everyone. Location, work rules, and general Quality of Life are critical factors in deciding where to work. However, don’t sell yourself short by not applying for a major just because you’re comfortable. Don’t settle.

I assert that you can make the same or better money at a major, for fewer days at work, than possible at almost any other company. With some potential exceptions, the work rules at these companies are vastly superior to what you get at a lot of Tier 2 or regional carriers.

Again, I don’t say this to brag or rub it in your face. The majors are all hiring and every Part 121 pilot in the United States is competitive at every single one. If you have significant reasons for staying at your current company, more power to you! However, if you’ve been lying to yourself, I hope this data helps tip the scales and convinces you to at least update your apps.

Thanks for reading. I hope this calculator helps. Remember: don’t ask for permissions to edit the master. I won’t let you have them. Use “File -> Download” or “File -> Make a Copy” to get a version you can edit.

If anyone out there knows a better way to host a spreadsheet online where each client browser creates its own instance without editing the master, I’d love to know about it. Sadly, I lack the motivation to build a unique web app for each calculator I come up with.