Frontier Airlines Pilot Pay Scale (2026)
Frontier pays by the flight hour, with a 75-hour monthly pay guarantee for both line holders and reserves. The rates below come from the Airline Pilot Central pay table and are corroborated by Epic Flight Academy (updated January 2026), Simple Flying (March 2026), and Aviation A2Z (March 2026). No successor contract has been ratified, so these remain the operative rates. Annualized figures use the contractual floor: hourly rate × 75 hours × 12 months. Actual W-2s typically run higher once premium and overfly pay, per diem, and the company retirement contribution are added.
First Officer scale (A320 family)
| Year | Hourly Rate | Annual at 75-hr Guarantee |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | $100 | ~$90,000 |
| 2 | $118 | ~$106,200 |
| 3 | $127 | ~$114,300 |
| 4 | $134 | ~$120,600 |
| 5 | $142 | ~$127,800 |
| 6 | $148 | ~$133,200 |
| 7 | $155 | ~$139,500 |
| 8 | $160 | ~$144,000 |
| 9 | $166 | ~$149,400 |
| 10 | $170 | ~$153,000 |
| 11 | $175 | ~$157,500 |
| 12 | $179 | ~$161,100 |
Captain scale (A320 family) — published reference points
| Year | Hourly Rate | Annual at 75-hr Guarantee |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | $202 | ~$181,800 |
| 2 | $219 | ~$197,100 |
| 10 | $254 | ~$228,600 |
| 12 (top of scale) | $270 | ~$243,000 |
The scale tops out at year 12. One thing you will not find here: a widebody pay scale. Frontier operates an all-Airbus narrowbody fleet — A320, A320neo, A321, and A321neo — so there is no widebody captain premium the way there is at a legacy carrier. Top-of-scale narrowbody captain is the ceiling.
First-Year Reality: What a New Hire Actually Takes Home
The headline number for a new Frontier First Officer is $100 per flight hour on the A320 family. Run that through the guarantee and you get the realistic first-year figure:
$100/hr × 75 hrs/month × 12 months = ~$90,000 in first-year flight pay at the minimum guarantee, before per diem and before the company's direct retirement contribution of roughly 15% of eligible earnings.
Fly more than 75 hours in a month — and many line holders do — and the number climbs from there. The ~$90K figure is a floor, not an average.
That ~$90,000 figure is confirmed across four independent sources: the Airline Pilot Central pay table, Epic Flight Academy (updated January 21, 2026), Simple Flying (March 2026, which puts it at roughly $100 per hour and about $90,000 per year), and Aviation A2Z (March 2026, with essentially the same math).
One caution on conflicting numbers you may see elsewhere: at least one salary aggregator listed a $68K first-year figure as of May 2026. That number matches pre-2022 rates and is inconsistent with the current $100/hr scale. Treat the credible first-year range as roughly $90K at the guarantee floor, with upside above that when flying more than 75 hours a month.
What sits on top of flight pay
- Per diem: $2.15 per hour, domestic and international, per Airline Pilot Central — independently corroborated at roughly $2.15–$2.20/hr away from base.
- Retirement: a direct, non-elective company contribution — 12% of wages stepping up to 15% as of March 2022, meaning currently around 15% of eligible earnings goes into the 401(k) regardless of what the pilot defers. On ~$90,000 of first-year earnings, that is meaningful money the W-2 alone does not show.
- Monthly guarantee: 75 hours for both line holders and reserves, which is what makes the annualized floor a real floor.
Career Earnings: The Progression Story
The First Officer scale climbs steadily — $100 in year one, $142 by year five, $179 by year twelve — which puts a senior FO at roughly $161,000 at the guarantee before extras. But the real earnings event at Frontier, as at every airline, is the upgrade. A year-one captain earns $202/hr, roughly double a new-hire FO, and the captain scale climbs to $270/hr at year twelve.
At the 75-hour guarantee, top-of-scale captain pay annualizes to about $243,000, and reported realistic annuals run in the $240K–$270K range depending on hours flown. Add the ~15% direct 401(k) contribution on those earnings and career-long compensation at Frontier is substantially better than the hourly rate alone suggests.
Context matters, though. ALPA has publicly said Frontier captains sit roughly 40% below industry-average narrowbody rates — which is both the honest caveat on these numbers and the core of the union's argument in negotiations. That gap is the reason the next section may be the most important one on this page.
The contract situation: why every number here could move
The current contract was ratified January 10, 2019 — a bankruptcy-era-pattern agreement — and became amendable in January 2024. Under the Railway Labor Act there is no fixed expiration: the contract stays in force until a successor is ratified. As of July 2026, no successor agreement has been ratified. The timeline so far:
- July 25, 2023: Section 6 negotiations opened.
- 2023–24: Talks moved into National Mediation Board mediation.
- October 15, 2024: Strike authorization vote closed — 99% in favor, 97% participation.
- As of mid-2026: ALPA has publicly asked the NMB for a proffer of arbitration or release, calling further mediation futile. A strike would still require NMB release plus a 30-day cooling-off period; none has been granted.
The practical takeaway for anyone comparing offers: the rates on this page are probably the low-water mark. A ratified successor contract would likely raise pay rates, and possibly the retirement and per diem numbers, materially. It also means you should re-verify these figures before making any career decision that depends on them.
How Pay Should (and Should Not) Factor Into Your Interview Prep
Know these numbers cold before you interview — and then never lead with them in the room. "Why do you want to fly for Frontier?" is never a money answer. Interviewers at every carrier can smell a candidate who is chasing a pay scale, and at Frontier specifically, where the pilot group is mid-fight for a better contract, a compensation-first answer lands even worse.
Where the salary picture does belong in your prep:
- Company knowledge. Knowing that Frontier flies an all-Airbus narrowbody fleet, that the contract became amendable in January 2024, and that the pilots voted 99% for strike authorization shows you understand the airline you are asking to join — including its labor situation. That is research depth most candidates skip.
- Answering the hard question well. If the panel asks what you know about the contract situation, describe it accurately and neutrally, then pivot to why the flying, the base, the fleet, and the career path fit you. Do not editorialize about management or the union.
- Your own decision-making. The honest use of this page is deciding whether the offer works for your life — commute, base, upgrade timing, family math — before you invest in the interview. Do that analysis at home, not out loud in the interview.
Pro Tip: The compensation research is the easy half. The interview itself is behavioral and scenario-driven, and that is where preparation actually separates candidates. Work through our full Frontier Airlines pilot interview guide, then practice out loud against the Frontier question bank in the Vectors to Hired app, where the AI Voice Coach scores your spoken answers before a panel ever hears them.
Sources
Figures on this page were cross-checked against the Airline Pilot Central Frontier pay table, Epic Flight Academy's Frontier hiring page (updated January 2026), Simple Flying and Aviation A2Z salary reporting (March 2026), readyfortakeoffbook.com's Frontier conditions page, the National Mediation Board's ratification press release, ALPA's Frontier MEC site, and strike-vote reporting from AirlineGeeks and Simple Flying. As of 2026-07-23; verify current rates before relying on them.