Airline Pilot CV Examples & Writing Guide

A one-page CV for an Embraer 190 captain at a UK regional airline with about 6,100 hours, applying to a larger airline. The name, airline and university are made up. Licences and flight times sit at the top, then a complete flying history with no gaps, then education. The hours add up: 1,350 instructing, 2,100 as first officer, 2,400 as captain, plus training time.

A pilot CV is not a normal CV. Above the work history sits a block that lists your licence, ratings, medical and a flight-time table. Airlines compare these against their published requirements before anything else, and the online application asks for the same numbers, so they need to match your logbook exactly.

• Use the categories the airline application uses. Most ask for total, PIC, co-pilot, multi-pilot, turbine, turbine PIC, multi-engine, jet, instrument, night and, for instructors, instruction given. Do not invent categories such as "leadership hours".
• PIC means what the logbook rules say it means; log PICUS as PICUS. Airlines check logbooks during selection; a number that does not match ends the process.
• Put the medical class and revalidation date. Airlines expect a current UK CAA Class 1 medical. If your medical carries a limitation beyond corrective lenses, discuss it at interview, not on the CV.
• Type ratings go in the licence line exactly as endorsed on your licence (for example A320, B737 300-900, ATR 42/72).
• For a first airline application, note your frozen ATPL status (CPL, ME/IR and ATPL theory passed), your MCC or APS MCC certificate and any type rating you already hold. Without MCC, many airlines cannot consider you.

Your CV is read by a pilot recruiter, then by training captains on the selection panel who fly the aircraft you are applying for. They compare the page against your online application and, before an offer, against your logbook, licence and references from previous operators. Selection usually continues with aptitude tests, an interview and a simulator assessment. Four things decide whether you get that far.

• Requirements and preferred hours. Airlines publish requirements for each route in: cadet and low-hours schemes take newly qualified pilots, while direct-entry first officer and captain roles ask for hours on type, multi-pilot time and, for captains, command hours. Make the numbers they ask for impossible to miss.
• Training record. First-time passes on type ratings, command courses, line checks and OPC/LPCs. If you had additional training or a failed check, be ready to explain it honestly at interview; do not hide it, since training records and references will show it.
• Complete, gap-free history. Airline applications ask for your history with month and year, airside security checks need a verifiable record of recent years, and the CV must match. A gap is not disqualifying; an unexplained gap is a red flag.
• Judgement and safety culture. Diversions handled, safety reports filed, safety or standards roles, instructing and mentoring. One or two specific examples beat a paragraph about being "safety-focused".

“We look at command hours on type, then multi-crew experience, then the training history. A regional captain with clean checks and 2,000 hours in command is a straightforward yes for an assessment day. If the CV makes me hunt for those numbers, that is the first bad sign.”

Two or three lines: what you fly now and in what kind of operation, your key hours, your training record, and one thing that shows judgement or leadership. Pilot CVs often skip the personal statement entirely and let the flight-time block speak. If you include one, keep it short. Use a career objective only if you have low hours or are leaving the Armed Forces.

Pilot bullets are short and factual. Each job needs the aircraft, the type of operation (scheduled airline, charter, business aviation, military, flight training), the hours you logged there, your training record and one or two specific events or roles. Here is how weak lines usually read and what to write instead.

Pilot CVs keep the skills section short, because the licence and hours already prove the flying. Use 8 to 12 lines that show the environment you have worked in and the habits airlines train for.

• Operating environment: scheduled airline, charter, business aviation or flight training; short-haul or long-haul; oceanic, high-altitude airports, winter or mountain operations; CAT II or III approaches; RNAV and RNP procedures.
• Aircraft systems and avionics: the types you fly, FMS, autoflight, HUD if applicable, electronic flight bag apps, ACARS.
• Crew skills: crew resource management, threat and error management, briefing and debriefing, working with operations control, engineering and cabin crew.
• Safety and regulatory: air safety reporting and FDM participation, fatigue risk management, UK flight time limitations, MEL decisions.
• Instruction and leadership: line training captain, TRI or TRE, standards or safety roles, pilot union or professional standards work.

If you are a newly qualified commercial pilot with a frozen ATPL, a flight instructor building hours or flying smaller aircraft toward your first airline job, your CV has a different job: show that you meet the airline's requirements, that your training record is clean, and that you will be a low-risk trainee on a type rating course.

1. 1Lead with eligibility. State your total hours, your licence status (CPL with ME/IR and ATPL theory passed, or a full ATPL), your MCC or APS MCC, your Class 1 medical and any type rating. A frozen ATPL becomes a full ATPL at 1,500 hours, including 500 multi-pilot.
2. 2Show recency. Hours flown in the last 90 days and 12 months tell the recruiter you are current. If your licence was issued a while ago, say how you have kept flying: "Currently instructing 50 to 60 hours a month" answers the question before it is asked.
3. 3Prove the training record. Skill tests passed first time, ATPL theory average if strong (90%+), any instructor or standardisation role.
4. 4Name the scheme if you are in one. Many airlines and flight schools run cadet, mentored or partner programmes; list yours by name and your status in it.

• One page. Airline recruiters and selection panels expect one page even for very experienced captains, two at the most. Cut hobbies before you cut a flight-time category.
• Order: header with licence and medical, flight-time table, experience (every flying and non-flying job, month and year, no gaps), education, additional qualifications, then one or two lines of volunteer or professional activity.
• Plain layout, standard font, black text, no photo, no date of birth. Save as a PDF named Lastname-Firstname-CV.pdf and upload the same version you bring on paper.
• The CV must agree with your online application on the airline's careers portal to the hour and to the month. Update both at the same time.
• Keywords are less important here than in most jobs because a person reads every pilot CV, but use the airline's own terms: "ATPL", "type rating", "multi-pilot", "Class 1 medical", "MCC", "CRM", "OPC/LPC", "line check".
• If you also apply to airlines in the EU, remember that UK CAA and EASA licences have been separate since Brexit. State which licence you hold (or both) and your right to work in the EU, still on one page and still without a photo unless the airline asks.

Run the finished page through the cvplex ATS checker to catch a missing flight-time category, a date gap between jobs, or a licence line that does not match the wording on your licence.