Particularly for pilot positions I do not recommend summarizing your qualifications in your cover letter. This is a quick way to make sure they don't read it. They will see that your letter is a summary and go right to the resume. Or worse, read your cover letter and not your resume.

You WANT them to read your cover letter AND your resume.

Instead, the cover letter is where you’re going to give them something that is not on your resume.

While I do agree that bullet points grab attention, so does a short and sweet paragraph. If I was to draft a cover letter say, for a financial analyst, I would probably summarize the experience. Simply because the resume is most likely going to be over two pages with very lengthy duty descriptions.
Let's face it, pilots have pretty much the same duties at every job and you are already "summarizing" your qualifications right at the top of your resume.

So, my advice is to keep the cover letter personal. And by all means, short. They will most likely at the very least glance at it if it is short.

so to keep it personal I suggest including why you want to work for them and who are you?

Is there something special that attracted you to this company? Let them know! For example, if their junior domicile is New Jersey….why do you want to go there? Do you have family nearby?

How about if they contribute to certain charities that you hold near-and-dear?

If you don’t have any special reason for wanting to work for them, then simply illustrate your unique personal characteristics.

Try to compliment the company in your cover letter (feel good) and most certainly let the humility *shine*

I always thank them for taking the time to read my information and sign it "Respectfully."

Hope that helps!