Just considering the "Legacy" carriers, the mean salary is $119.83/hour. Multiply that by 1,000 hours (which few actually fly per year) and that is $119,830. Add a few benefits and subtract a few expenses, it probably comes out about right. You can take this out as far as you want by adding FedEx and UPS or AirTran, Alaska, JetBlue, etc., etc. I think you would see a drastic lowering of the salary if you begin to add regional and commuters into the mix.