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Airline Pilots, Copilots, and Flight Engineers vs Aircraft Service Attendants

Side-by-side · O*NET · BLS · AI-exposure research · Anthropic Economic Index

A factual, source-backed comparison of Airline Pilots, Copilots, and Flight Engineers and Aircraft Service Attendants on the dimensions both occupations carry. Every figure is a position within an independent published dataset — not a verdict on which job is better, safer, or more “future-proof.”

Airline Pilots, Copilots, and Flight Engineers Aircraft Service Attendants
Median pay · BLS OEWS
$226,600
$41,540
Employment · BLS OEWS
99,300
27,310
AI exposure (percentile) · task overlap, not automation
31st pct
22nd pct

At a glance

Dimension Airline Pilots, Copilots, and Flight Engineers Aircraft Service Attendants
Median pay $226,600 $41,540
Employment 99,300 27,310
Employment outlook (2024–34) · BLS projection About average (+3.9%) About average (+5.1%)
Annual openings · BLS projection 11,700 4,300
Typical education · O*NET Most of these occupations require a four-year bachelor's degree, but some do not. Usually requires a high school diploma or GED, though some occupations may not.
AI exposure · published exposure studies Low · 31st pct Low · 22nd pct
Global GenAI gradient · ILO ISCO-08 · via crosswalk 51st pct · 27% of tasks —
Observed AI use · Anthropic Economic Index — —
Mostly remote-capable · Dingel–Neiman No —

Pay and employment are BLS OEWS estimates; outlook and openings are BLS 2024–2034 projections; AI exposure and observed-use figures come from separate research and reflect exposure and usage, not predictions that either job will disappear. Compare like with like.

Skills

Specific to Airline Pilots, Copilots, and Flight Engineers

  • Operation and Control
  • Response Orientation
  • Transportation
  • Problem Sensitivity
  • Operations Monitoring
  • Control Precision
  • Reaction Time
  • Near Vision

Specific to Aircraft Service Attendants

    Knowledge, skills & abilities O*NET rates as important for each occupation. “Shared” are common to both; the columns list what is distinctive to each (top by the order O*NET surfaces).

    Tools & technology

    Shared: Spreadsheet software , Office suite software , Word processing software , Information retrieval or search software , Analytical or scientific software .

    Specific to Airline Pilots, Copilots, and Flight Engineers

    Specific to Aircraft Service Attendants

    Full profiles

    This page is a summary. See the complete source-backed profile for Airline Pilots, Copilots, and Flight Engineers or Aircraft Service Attendants — tasks, the full skill graph, tools, work context, preparation, wages by percentile, industries, AI exposure and the AI work map.

    More comparisons

    Related occupations you can place side by side on the same sourced scale.

    Sources for this page

    Every figure above traces to a named public dataset and the exact release below — not hand-written opinion. See the full methodology for what each measure does and does not mean.

    Data compiled June 2, 2026. Figures are estimates, not advice.

    Cite this page
    Plain

    Singulariki. "Airline Pilots, Copilots, and Flight Engineers vs Aircraft Service Attendants." Singulariki: a source-backed encyclopedia of work. Built from O*NET 30.3; BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) May 2024; BLS Employment Projections 2024–2034; Anthropic Economic Index v4 (2026-01-15) + v2 (2025-03-27); Microsoft “Working with AI” working-with-ai; “GPTs are GPTs” (Eloundou et al.) arXiv 2303.10130; AI Occupational Exposure (AIOE) Felten, Raj & Seamans; ILO / Gmyrek et al. GenAI exposure gradient 2025; IBS O*NET-SOC ↔ ISCO-08 occupation crosswalk 2022; Frey & Osborne (2013) frey-osborne-automation; Dingel & Neiman (2020) dingel-neiman-workathome. Accessed June 7, 2026. https://singulariki.com/compare/airline-pilots-copilots-and-flight-engineers-vs-aircraft-service-attendants

    APA

    Singulariki. (2026). Airline Pilots, Copilots, and Flight Engineers vs Aircraft Service Attendants. Singulariki: a source-backed encyclopedia of work. Retrieved June 7, 2026, from https://singulariki.com/compare/airline-pilots-copilots-and-flight-engineers-vs-aircraft-service-attendants

    BibTeX 
    @misc{singulariki-airline-pilots-copilots-and-flight-engineers-vs-aircraft-service-attendants,
  title  = {Airline Pilots, Copilots, and Flight Engineers vs Aircraft Service Attendants},
  author = {{Singulariki}},
  year   = {2026},
  note   = {O*NET 30.3; BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) May 2024; BLS Employment Projections 2024–2034; Anthropic Economic Index v4 (2026-01-15) + v2 (2025-03-27); Microsoft “Working with AI” working-with-ai; “GPTs are GPTs” (Eloundou et al.) arXiv 2303.10130; AI Occupational Exposure (AIOE) Felten, Raj & Seamans; ILO / Gmyrek et al. GenAI exposure gradient 2025; IBS O*NET-SOC ↔ ISCO-08 occupation crosswalk 2022; Frey & Osborne (2013) frey-osborne-automation; Dingel & Neiman (2020) dingel-neiman-workathome. Accessed June 7, 2026},
  url    = {https://singulariki.com/compare/airline-pilots-copilots-and-flight-engineers-vs-aircraft-service-attendants}
}

    Citations name the underlying public dataset releases — they reflect what this page is built from, not just the URL.