I am a high school prospective pilot. I have a couple questions. I have always wanted to be a pilot, and I have also wanted to live in another country. France, to be specific. So, I was wondering, would I be able to work for an airline such as Air France? Would it be a... not so wise career move to fly in an other country? Is pay better in other country's? Would I have to do flight training in THAT SPECIFIC country? Thanks in advance for your help!

 

You would need right-to-work in the EU just to be eligible. Once you have that, actually getting hired by a particular European carrier might or might not be particularly difficult. You may need to have family connections going back hundreds of years or something like that.


It might be better than the US in some ways...it probably couldn't be any worse...

All airline pay rates can be found on the internet, check it out.

Captain and First Officer pay scales start at year one. Be aware that in the US, a ten-year FO who upgrades to CA gets paid at the ten-year CA rate. In most foreign airlines a ten-year FO who upgrades starts all over and gets paid as a one-year CA.

Also EU income taxes will be MUCH higher than in the US...maybe up to 60% compared to 30% here.


Sort of. You would need JAA licenses for any EU airline. These are harder to earn (and more expensive than the FAA licenses you need for US airlines).

You can get JAA airlines in any EU country, but you can also get them (much cheaper) at a number of US flight schools. If you really think you can get EU right-to-work I would do your training in the US at a school which does both FAA and JAA licenses. Get them both, that way your bases are covered.


But figure out the right-to-work thing before you blow money on JA certs.

 

..Also, just about all European majors require that you speak their language..

 

The EU airline I instruct for here in the US requires our students to speak 3 languages.

 

In most European countries you would have to be fluent in their language to get a job with a major. British Airways may work for you if you are not fluent in French, Spanish, german etc. It is not common that three languages are required.

If you have the right to live and work in the EU some of the sponsorship (cadet) programs such as the ones by Lufthansa or AirFrance may be interesting.

Regarding taxes: Yes, they tend to be higher but 60% would be unusual. In Germany for example the highest income tax rate is around 40% but there are additional social security taxes. however, the upside is that this also means free health cover and other state benefits such us unemployment and retirement benefits. France has very favourable taxation for airline pilots and the salaries at Air France are pretty good.

But again, unless you have the right to live and work in the EU and speak the language chances would be slim.