The appeal of flight is strong for many adventurous souls. Some even try to make a living following their passion for flight. One of the most comfortable ways to make money as a pilot is to become a business pilot, flying corporate jets for people & businesses who can afford the cost of a plane, fuel, and a pilot’s salary.

If you have invested the substantial time and money required to earn your Private Pilot’s license, you may wonder if you, too, can turn this passion into a career. The answer is that corporations will not hire a private pilot. To become a corporate pilot, you’ll need not only a commercial MEL/SEL rating with instrument certification, but most corporate pilots also have their ATP (Airline Transport Pilot License). A pilot can only get this license after earning a commercial rating and logging 1500 (fixed-wing) hours as well as passing the certification test.

Corporate pilots are seldom in the position of being able to wait for a sunny day simply for the sun to come up. They will need to be able to fly in any weather and over any terrain. So there’s good reason that corporations insist on hiring only those with the flight experience and certifications to fly their planes. These businesses are often placing their most valuable employees and their own family members in the hands of the corporate pilot. They’ll want a person who knows what to do in any situation to take on that responsibility.

A certified commercial or military pilot may be well on the way to a potential corporate pilot’s career. If you have the connections to find one of these plum positions, will you want it?

Corporate pilots have to live at the whim and demand of their employer. If the company president has an important meeting in New York the weekend your daughter is crowned homecoming queen, plan on calling her from the Big Apple. Kind employers may try to be flexible about important events, but the reality is that they have hired you for the purpose of flying them where they need (or want) to go, when they need (or want) to go there. So you’ll need to be available.

On the up side, there may be days or even a week where no one needs to go anywhere, you complete the routine maintenance and record keeping for the jet, and you have some random days off. Additionally, the pay for corporate pilots can be very comfortable, so besides following your love of flight, you could possibly be well compensated.

There are different companies who use corporate pilots. Some industries that hire a large number of pilots include oil and gas companies, who have pilots going between drilling fields, pipelines, and corporate offices constantly. Air ambulances are another option, if you like to keep the adrenaline rushing. Some companies are strictly charter air services with a different client each flight. There are companies who use private planes to fly freight. Among these, of course, are the delivery services like Fed Ex and UPS. Many large corporations have corporate jets and pilots at company headquarters.