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Hiring requirements

United Airlines pilot hiring requirements

AirlineUnited StatesNorth AmericaUAL / UA

Registered as United Airlines, Inc..

Verified 15 August 2026

United Airlines is a US legacy carrier flying a large mixed Boeing and Airbus fleet across a global hub-and-spoke network. It hires first officers directly for pilots holding an unrestricted ATP, and separately runs the Aviate ab-initio program and a Military Pilot Program with reduced hour requirements for active-duty veterans.

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Applications are made on United Airlines's own site. SkyStudy never collects an application, a document or a fee.

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Vacancies we can see at United Airlines

Nothing from United Airlines is on our board today. That means we are not currently reading an open flight-deck advert from their own careers system, not that they are not hiring: open the official careers page above, which is the only complete list. See what is open at other operators.

What the operator asks for

Minimum requirements on record

Only what United Airlines states publicly. "Not stated" means the operator does not publish that figure, not that there is no requirement, and never that the requirement is zero.

Licence
FAA ATPLsource
Total time
1,500 hsource
PIC time
Not stated
Multi-engine
Not stated
Turbine
Not stated
On type
Not stated
Type rating
Not stated
Medical
Class 1source
ICAO English
Not stated
Age
Not stated
Right to work
USsource
Also required
FCC Restricted Radiotelephone Operator Permit (RR)
Also required
Prefer a minimum of 100 hours of flight time within the last 12 months
Also required
Current passport with at least six-months of validity remaining at time of employment
Also required
Yellow Fever vaccination required on first day
Also required
No planned absences during first 12 weeks
Also required
Prefer 1,000 hours of fixed wing turbine time

Any age, nationality, residency, height or vision criterion above is the operator's own stated criterion, quoted from its own page. Some such criteria are lawful where an operator recruits and unlawful elsewhere, including in the EU. SkyStudy reports them factually and does not adopt them as requirements of its own.

Every published profile is checked by hand against the operator's own careers page, and is flagged for a recheck 180 days after that check. Requirements change without notice, so confirm every figure on the operator's own careers page before you apply.

Pay and contract

Contract type: Not stated. Do not assume direct employment; some operators contract through an agency or on a self-employed basis, which changes tax, sick pay and pension entirely.

Pay: Not stated on the operator's own page.

For what pilots earn by region and seat, with its own sources and dates, see the pilot salary guide. Those are market ranges, not an offer from this operator.

Selection process

Not stated. This operator does not publish its selection stages, so nothing is listed here. A recruitment site claiming to know the stages is guessing, and so would we be.

Bases

  • Chicago O'Hare (ORD)
  • Denver (DEN)
  • Houston (IAH)
  • Newark (EWR)
  • San Francisco (SFO)

Fleet

  • Airbus A319
  • Airbus A320
  • Boeing 737
  • Boeing 757
  • Boeing 767
  • Boeing 777
  • Boeing 787

Worth knowing

Notes on this operator

  • ContextUnited's Military Pilot Program does not require an ATP certificate or a minimum hour count to apply, unlike the general first officer track.
  • ContextThe figures here are from United's own first officer page.

Provenance

Where each figure came from

Each entry is the sentence the value was read from, on the operator's own site. If a figure here is out of date, the quote is what to check it against.

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