How to Write an Airline Pilot CV: Complete Guide

A strong airline pilot CV needs to do something slightly different from a conventional CV. Before an airline recruiter is interested in your wider employment history, hobbies or personal qualities, they need to establish whether you actually meet the requirements of the position.

That means your flying qualifications, licence, medical, type ratings, flight hours, recent experience and right to work may be far more important than the information that would normally dominate a CV for a ground-based job.

The challenge is presenting all of this information in a document that is clear, concise and easy to understand. An airline recruiter should not have to search through your CV to establish whether you meet the minimum requirements of the vacancy.

This guide explains how to write a professional pilot CV, what information to include, how to present your flying experience and the common mistakes to avoid. The advice is suitable for cadet pilots, newly qualified and low-hour pilots, First Officers and experienced Captains.

FlightDeckFriend’s pilot CV guidance is produced by professional pilots with experience of airline pilot recruitment, CV screening and pilot selection.

Why Is Your Pilot CV So Important?

Your CV is often one of the first opportunities an airline has to assess you. In some recruitment processes it may be reviewed alongside an online application form, while in others it could be the document that determines whether your application progresses any further.

Airline recruitment teams can receive large numbers of applications. They therefore need to be able to establish the important information quickly. A beautifully written CV is of little value if a recruiter cannot immediately find your licence status, total flying hours or experience on type.

A good pilot CV should answer the recruiter’s most important questions almost immediately:

• Do you hold the required pilot licence?
• Do you meet the minimum flight-hour requirements?
• Do you have the required type rating or relevant aircraft experience?
• Is your Class 1 medical valid?
• Do you have the appropriate right to live and work in the required country?
• Do you meet any recency or recent-experience requirements?
• Are you available within the airline’s required timeframe?

Once those basic requirements have been established, the recruiter can look more closely at your career history, training record, education and the experience that differentiates you from other applicants.

What Is the Best Format for an Airline Pilot CV?

A pilot CV should generally be clean, professional and easy to scan. Avoid treating it as a graphic-design exercise. The primary objective is to communicate relevant information efficiently.

Use clearly labelled sections, a professional font, consistent formatting and sufficient white space to prevent the document from appearing overcrowded. Important information such as your licence, flight hours and current position should be easy to locate.

Increasing numbers of employers use online recruitment systems and applicant tracking systems (ATS) during the application process. For this reason, excessively complicated layouts, graphics, icons, unusual fonts and information placed inside elaborate text boxes may cause unnecessary problems.

A relatively simple layout also has another advantage: it allows your CV to be adapted quickly for different airline applications without having to redesign the entire document.

Should a Pilot CV Be One or Two Pages?

For a cadet or newly qualified pilot, one page will often be sufficient. You may have limited aviation employment history and there is little benefit in padding the CV with irrelevant information simply to make it longer.

For experienced First Officers and Captains, two pages may be entirely appropriate if you have several previous airline positions, type ratings or other relevant professional experience.

The objective should not be to reach a particular number of pages. It should be to communicate all relevant information as concisely as possible. In most cases, there is very little reason for an airline pilot CV to exceed two pages.

What Should Be Included in a Pilot CV?

The precise order can be adjusted depending on your level of experience and the requirements of the vacancy. However, a typical airline pilot CV will normally include the following sections.

1. Name and Contact Details

Your name and contact information should be immediately visible at the top of the document.

Include:

• Your full name
• Mobile telephone number including international dialling code
• A professional email address
• Current town/city and country of residence
• Relevant right-to-work information where appropriate

There is normally no need to include your complete postal address unless an employer specifically asks for it. Similarly, avoid including unnecessary personal or identification information purely because it appeared on an old CV template.

Check your telephone number and email address carefully before submitting the document. A surprisingly small error here can make it difficult for a recruiter to contact you.

2. Pilot Licence, Ratings and Medical

This is one of the most important parts of an airline pilot CV and should normally appear near the top of the document.

Clearly identify the licence you hold and the authority which issued it. Depending on your experience, this might include an ATPL, MPL or CPL with the appropriate associated ratings.

Relevant information may include:

• Licence type and issuing authority
• ATPL or frozen ATPL status where applicable
• Instrument Rating
• Multi-Engine rating
• Type Rating(s)
• MCC or APS MCC completion
• Class 1 Medical status
• ICAO English Language Proficiency level
• Other relevant instructor, examiner or specialist qualifications

You do not necessarily need to publish sensitive identification numbers, such as a complete licence or passport number, on a CV unless the airline specifically requests them.

Where validity or expiry dates are relevant to the vacancy, include them. The recruiter should be able to determine your current qualification status without having to contact you for clarification.

How to Present Flight Hours on a Pilot CV

Your flight-hour summary is one of the most important sections of your CV. It should be clearly presented and positioned prominently, particularly when the vacancy specifies minimum experience requirements.

Exactly which categories you include will depend on the role. Relevant headings might include:

• Total Flight Time
• Total Multi-Crew Time
• Pilot in Command (PIC) / P1
• PICUS where applicable
• Second in Command / Co-pilot time
• Multi-Engine time
• Instrument time
• Time on Type
• Command time on Type
• Relevant recent flying experience

There is no benefit in filling the CV with every possible category if it is irrelevant to the job. Concentrate on the experience the airline has actually asked for.

For example, if an airline requires 500 hours on the A320 family, that figure needs to be immediately obvious. If the vacancy specifies a particular amount of multi-crew or command experience, make that information equally easy to find.

Do not combine simulator time with your aircraft flight time in a way that could give a misleading impression of your total experience. If simulator experience is relevant, identify it separately.

Make Your Pilot CV Relevant to the Airline

One of the most common mistakes is sending exactly the same CV to every airline.

You do not need to completely rewrite your CV for every application, but you should review the vacancy carefully and make sure the information most relevant to that airline is easy to find.

If the job advert specifies a minimum number of hours, licence requirement, particular type rating, right-to-work requirement or required level of recent experience, check that your CV addresses it clearly.

You can also adjust the emphasis of your employment experience according to the role. An experienced Captain applying for a command position might highlight leadership, training responsibilities and operational decision-making. A low-hour pilot may place greater emphasis on training performance, previous employment and transferable non-technical skills.

Use the Airline’s Terminology Where Appropriate

Airlines may describe similar qualifications or positions in slightly different ways. Where it is accurate to do so, using terminology that reflects the vacancy can make your CV easier for both recruiters and recruitment systems to interpret.

Do not, however, simply copy large sections of the job advertisement into your CV. Your application still needs to accurately describe your own qualifications and experience.

Employment History

Your employment history should normally be presented in reverse chronological order, starting with your current or most recent position.

For aviation employment, include the airline or operator, your position, aircraft type and dates of employment. Experienced pilots can also include particularly relevant responsibilities such as training, checking, command, safety or management roles.

For example:

First Officer – Example Airways | Airbus A320 | March 2023 – Present
Operating scheduled European passenger services within a multi-crew commercial environment. Current on the A320 family with experience of high-frequency short-haul operations and a strong emphasis on SOP compliance, threat and error management and effective CRM.

Avoid simply creating a long list of generic responsibilities that apply to virtually every pilot. Use the limited space available to communicate something useful about your experience.

Should You Include Non-Flying Jobs?

Low-hour pilots should normally include relevant previous employment, particularly if they have limited aviation experience.

A non-aviation career can demonstrate valuable skills including teamwork, communication, leadership, customer service, decision-making and working in safety-critical or time-pressured environments.

However, don’t try to force every previous job into an aviation context. Explain the experience clearly and allow the recruiter to understand the transferable skills you developed.

For experienced airline pilots, old and unrelated employment becomes progressively less important. Space is usually better devoted to your aviation career.

Flight Training and Education

For newly qualified and low-hour pilots, your flight training record is particularly important because you may not yet have an extensive professional flying history.

Consider including:

• Name of your Approved Training Organisation or flight school
• Integrated or modular training route where relevant
• CPL and MEIR training
• ATPL theoretical examination results if particularly strong
• MCC or APS MCC details
• Aircraft or simulator type used during MCC training
• Relevant training achievements or awards

If you achieved particularly strong results, such as a high ATPL theory average or first-time passes throughout training, this may be worth highlighting.

Academic education should also normally be shown in reverse chronological order. Newly qualified pilots may want to provide more detail, while an experienced Captain with many years of airline employment may only need to include their principal qualifications.

How Should Low-Hour Pilots Write a CV?

A common concern among newly qualified pilots is that they do not have enough flying experience to produce a strong CV. That is precisely why the rest of the document becomes more important.

If you have recently completed flight training, concentrate on the evidence you do have. This may include your training performance, ATPL results, MCC or APS MCC, previous employment, education, volunteering, leadership positions, customer-facing experience and other achievements.

Airlines recruiting low-hour pilots already know that applicants will not have thousands of hours of commercial flying experience. There is therefore little point trying to make a relatively small amount of experience appear more significant than it is.

Instead, produce a CV that is accurate, professional and demonstrates a strong overall record.

You can view our pilot CV example templates for examples of how a low-hour pilot CV can be structured.

How Should Experienced Pilots Write a CV?

As your airline career progresses, the emphasis of your CV should change.

An experienced First Officer or Captain should generally give greater prominence to airline employment, aircraft types, command experience, hours on type and additional operational responsibilities.

Depending on your background, this might include:

• Training Captain or TRI/TRE experience
• Line Training responsibilities
• Examiner qualifications
• Management or fleet responsibilities
• Safety department involvement
• Recruitment or assessment experience
• Technical or standards roles
• Command experience

At this stage of your career, information about school qualifications or unrelated employment from many years ago can usually be shortened considerably.

Should a Pilot CV Include a Personal Statement?

A personal profile or summary is optional.

If you include one, keep it short and specific. Avoid generic statements such as describing yourself as a “hard-working, enthusiastic and highly motivated team player”. Almost anybody can make those claims and they provide the recruiter with very little evidence of your suitability.

A useful professional summary might instead identify your current role, relevant experience and the type of opportunity you are seeking.

For example:

“A320 First Officer with 2,400 hours total time, including 1,700 hours on the A320 family, currently operating scheduled European services. Seeking to continue my career with a long-term airline employer offering opportunities for professional development and future command.”

That immediately tells the recruiter something useful.

Should You Put a Photo on a Pilot CV?

There is no universal answer because recruitment practices differ between airlines and countries.

As a general rule, do not include a photograph unless there is a good reason to do so or the airline requests one. For many UK and European applications, a photograph adds little useful information and takes up space that could be used for relevant professional details.

In some regions or recruitment processes, photographs may still be customary. Check the airline’s application instructions and local recruitment conventions rather than assuming one format is appropriate everywhere.

Do You Need to Include Your Date of Birth?

Again, follow the specific requirements of the airline.

If the application form already collects your date of birth, there may be little reason to duplicate it on the CV unless requested. Avoid adding unnecessary personal information simply because it appears on an old CV template.

The same principle applies to marital status, gender, passport numbers and other personal details. Include information that is relevant to determining your eligibility for the position and omit information that has no useful recruitment purpose unless specifically requested.

How to Make a Pilot CV ATS Friendly

Many employers now use online recruitment platforms to process applications. Although systems vary considerably, keeping your CV straightforward can make it easier for both software and humans to interpret.

Use conventional headings such as Flying Experience, Licences and Ratings, Employment History and Education. Avoid placing essential information solely inside graphics, decorative elements or complicated layouts.

It is also sensible to include the terminology used in the vacancy where it accurately describes your qualifications. For example, if the advert specifically asks for “A320 time on type”, make sure that information is clearly identifiable rather than expecting the recruiter to calculate it from several different employment entries.

Never add keywords for qualifications or experience you do not actually possess simply in an attempt to influence automated screening.

Formatting Your Pilot CV

The formatting should support the information rather than distract from it.

Use a consistent font and heading structure throughout the document. Ensure the text is large enough to read comfortably and leave enough white space to separate sections properly.

Avoid shrinking the font to an uncomfortable size simply to force the CV onto one page. It is better to remove irrelevant information or use a second page than produce a document that is difficult to read.

Colour can be used sparingly, but keep the design professional. There is generally no need to reproduce an airline’s full corporate branding or create a highly graphical document.

Check Your Dates and Employment Gaps

Recruitment and security processes may require an accurate history of your employment, education and other activities. Use clear dates, preferably including the month and year, rather than vague annual ranges where more detail is useful.

If there is a significant gap in your history, don’t attempt to disguise it. A simple explanation such as travelling, caring responsibilities, study, redundancy or looking for employment is usually clearer than leaving the recruiter to guess.

Most importantly, make sure the dates on your CV agree with the dates you provide elsewhere in the airline’s application form.

Common Pilot CV Mistakes

Even highly experienced pilots can weaken an application through relatively simple CV mistakes.

Common problems include:

• Burying licence and flight-hour information halfway down the CV
• Failing to show hours relevant to the minimum requirements
• Not tailoring the CV to the vacancy
• Using an excessively complicated or graphical layout
• Including irrelevant personal information
• Using unexplained abbreviations
• Mixing simulator time with aircraft flight time
• Giving inconsistent employment or training dates
• Writing long paragraphs instead of concise information
• Using an unprofessional email address
• Submitting a CV containing spelling or grammatical errors
• Failing to update flight hours before submitting the application

Attention to detail matters in aviation. Your CV does not need to be extravagant, but it should be accurate and professionally presented.

Should You Send Your Pilot CV as a PDF?

Always follow the instructions given by the airline or recruitment portal. If a particular file format is requested, use it.

Where no format is specified, PDF is often a good option because it helps preserve the layout of your document across different devices and operating systems.

Before uploading or sending it, open the final file and check it carefully. Confirm that text has not moved, page breaks are correct and nothing has disappeared during conversion.

Give the file a professional name that makes it easy to identify, for example:

James-Smith-Pilot-CV.pdf

Avoid names such as CV-new-final-v3.pdf.

Do You Need a Cover Letter With a Pilot CV?

This depends on the airline and the application process. Some airlines specifically request a cover letter, while others rely entirely on an online application form and CV.

If a cover letter is requested, it should complement your CV rather than repeat it. Explain why you are applying to that particular airline and briefly demonstrate why your background makes you a suitable candidate.

See our full guide on how to write an airline pilot cover letter for more guidance.

Final Pilot CV Checklist

Before submitting an airline application, check that a recruiter can quickly identify your current status and relevant experience.

• Is your telephone number correct and does it include the country code?
• Is your email address professional and correctly spelt?
• Is your pilot licence clearly identified?
• Is your Class 1 Medical status clear?
• Are your type ratings shown?
• Are your total flight hours up to date?
• Have you clearly shown the flight-hour categories required by the vacancy?
• Is relevant time on type clearly visible?
• Have you included your right-to-work status if relevant?
• Are employment and training dates accurate?
• Have you explained any significant gaps where necessary?
• Does the CV reflect the particular airline vacancy?
• Have you removed irrelevant information?
• Have you checked spelling and grammar?
• Have you checked the final PDF after conversion?

It is also worth asking somebody else to proofread the document. After working on a CV for several hours, it is surprisingly easy to overlook an obvious mistake.

Pilot CV Templates and Professional CV Help

If you would prefer to start with an existing design, have a look at our pilot CV example templates. They have been designed specifically around the information required for flight crew applications and can be customised with your own qualifications and experience.

If you would rather have your application professionally prepared, FlightDeckFriend also provides a professional airline pilot CV design service.

Frequently Asked Questions About Pilot CVs

How long should an airline pilot CV be?

A newly qualified or low-hour pilot can often present everything required on a single page. Experienced First Officers and Captains may need two pages. The priority is to keep the CV concise and relevant rather than trying to meet an arbitrary page length.

What should be at the top of a pilot CV?

Your contact information and the aviation qualifications needed to establish your eligibility for the position should be easy to find near the top. For most experienced pilot vacancies, that means your licence, ratings, medical status and relevant flight hours should be particularly prominent.

Should I include all of my flying hours?

Include your total time and the categories relevant to the job you are applying for. This may include PIC, multi-crew, multi-engine, instrument, time on type or command time on type. Don’t clutter the CV with numerous hour categories that have no relevance to the vacancy.

Should simulator hours be included in total flight time?

Simulator experience should normally be identified separately rather than being presented as aircraft flight time. Make sure the figures on your CV accurately represent your experience.

Should a pilot CV include a photograph?

Not necessarily. For many applications there is little reason to include one unless the airline requests it or photographs are customary within that particular recruitment market. Follow the employer’s instructions.

Should I include hobbies and interests?

They can be useful for cadets and low-hour pilots if they demonstrate genuine achievements, responsibilities or interests, particularly where professional experience is limited. For an experienced airline pilot, they are usually much less important and can be omitted if space is required for more relevant information.

Should a pilot CV have a personal statement?

It is optional. If you include one, keep it short and factual. Your current position, relevant experience and career objective are more useful than a paragraph containing generic claims about being hardworking or enthusiastic.

Is a pilot CV different from a normal CV?

Yes. An airline pilot CV places much greater emphasis on licences, ratings, medical status, aircraft experience and flying hours. These details can determine whether you meet the minimum requirements before the recruiter considers the rest of your career history.

Is a pilot CV the same as a pilot resume?

The terms are often used interchangeably, particularly when searching internationally for pilot jobs. “CV” is more common in the UK and many other countries, while “resume” is commonly used in the United States. Whatever terminology is used, the document needs to present your aviation qualifications and experience clearly.

Summary

A successful airline pilot CV does not need to be complicated. Its purpose is to allow an airline recruiter to establish quickly that you meet the requirements of the position and then understand the experience and achievements that make you a strong candidate.

Keep your flying qualifications and relevant flight hours prominent, use a simple professional layout, tailor the document to the vacancy and remove information that does not help your application.

Most importantly, make sure every piece of information is accurate. Your CV is often the airline’s first impression of you, and in an industry where professionalism and attention to detail are essential, it is worth getting it right.