Aircraft mechanic salary 2026: $79,870 median, by state

BLS median (May 2025)

$79,870

Aircraft mechanics & service technicians

BLS mean (OEWS 2025)

$84,740

Pulled up by airline and cargo overtime

Median hourly

$38.40

Before shift premium

If you searched “how much do airplane mechanics make,” you already met the internet’s favorite lie: a single round number, no state, no certificate, no overtime. The Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Outlook Handbook lists the May 2025 median annual wage for aircraft mechanics and service technicians at $79,870. Avionics technicians sit a little higher, at $82,280. Those are medians — half of the trade earns less, half earns more — not starting pay, and not a Delta line on a Saturday night.

The 2025 OEWS mean of about $84,740 is the average, dragged upward by major airline, cargo, and union shops. Entry-level A&P holders in general aviation still cluster in the mid-$40,000s to mid-$50,000s until they hold a shift, a type, or Inspection Authorization. Use the calculator below, then read the footnotes. We cite BLS because Google already ranks this page for salary queries — and because last year’s $75,400 figure is how sites lose U.S. readers.

The BLS numbers, without the brochure

The Occupational Outlook Handbook groups “Aircraft and Avionics Equipment Mechanics and Technicians.” Inside that family, aircraft mechanics and service technicians (SOC 49-3011) are the A&P-shaped job. The May 2025 median is $79,870 a year, or roughly $38.40 an hour. The 10th percentile of mechanics still earned less than $48,780. The 90th percentile earned more than $128,890 when overtime, license premiums, and high-cost states stack. Those percentiles are the honest frame: the trade has a real floor and a real ceiling, and neither looks like the median.

The combined family — mechanics plus avionics technicians — photographs at a $80,180 median for May 2025. Do not quote that blended figure as a job offer. It is a roll-up. Your offer is a shop rate, a step, or a night differential in a zip code. The Handbook also puts about 159,800 jobs in the family in 2025, with 6 percent projected growth from 2025 to 2035 and about 13,100 openings a year. Outlook is a separate desk. Pay is this one.

Mean and median are not interchangeable. The mean of about $84,740 sits above the median because the right tail is fat: cargo nights, major-airline overtime, Alaska, and people who sign more than they wrench. If a recruiter leads with the mean, ask for the step you will actually occupy in month one. If a school leads with the median, ask what their last class’s first checks looked like. Both numbers are real. Neither is your offer letter.

Pay by state (why Florida is not Washington)

State tables on this site are planning numbers, not an offer letter. High-cost coastal MRO and airline bases — Washington, California, New York, Alaska — print higher means. Florida and parts of the Southeast train a lot of people and keep a thicker junior bench, so the mean looks softer even when the hangar is full. Always cross-check the current OEWS state table on bls.gov before you relocate for a $4,000 bump that housing will eat.

The trap is treating a state mean as a personal raise. Washington’s sticker includes Sea-Tac line and heavy presence. Florida’s sticker includes a lot of first tickets from Part 147 programs and a lot of GA shops that sign more than they pay. Alaska pays isolation. New York pays the port. Texas pays volume. None of those sentences is a BLS percentile. They are how you read a map before you break a lease.

Airline vs MRO vs GA

The certificate is the same. The paycheck is not. A major-airline line job is a bid system: you wait, you take the shift nobody wants, and overtime can outrun the hourly printed on the AMT pay scale. Cargo night sort is the same physics with worse sleep. A Part 145 MRO pays for the check getting out the door — more skill variety, less bid politics, more “the customer is the lessor.” A ten-person GA shop will let you sign earlier and pay you like it.

• Major airline line: highest ceiling, bid system, overtime that can outrun the hourly rate, slower to hire a fresh ticket.
• Cargo (night sort): brutal hours, serious money, the work is the work.
• Part 145 MRO: skill variety, project pace, less bid politics, more “get the check out.”
• GA / 145 small: you will sign more, earn less, and learn faster if the IA is honest.

Do not pick a lane from Instagram. Pick it from the shift you will actually work and the city you can afford. A $38.40 median hourly sounds like a living in a lot of the country and like a rounding error in the Bay. The job outlook says the work is there. It does not say the work is next to your parents.

“American Airlines mechanic salary” and other name-brand searches

Google shows this site for “American Airlines mechanic salary,” “airline mechanic salary,” and “jet mechanic salary.” We will not invent a 2026 AA step chart. Union contracts move. What does not move: majors pay more than a 10-person 145 in the same zip code, and the first two years at a major can still look ordinary until overtime lands. Read the open contract, not a forum screenshot from 2022.

Name-brand searches are how people try to skip the hard part of the table above. There is no secret number we are hiding. There is a contract PDF, a bid, and a city. If the carrier will not show the current grid in the interview, that is data. If a YouTube thumbnail prints a year-twelve rate next to a first-day locker, that is marketing. The FAA mechanic path gets you in the door. The carrier’s agreement decides what the door pays.

Starting pay for an aviation mechanic

Starting pay is the question schools bury. A new A&P without a type, without a shift, without a city that hurts, should plan $22–$28/hour unless a specific shop has published higher. The people posting $40/hour on Reddit are usually year-four airline, not week-one Spartan. The BLS 10th percentile — less than $48,780 — is the statistical version of that first locker. Treat it as a planning floor, not a personal insult.

Budget tools, the first pair of boots, and a month before the first full check. The starter box is a real cost. So is the apartment near the 145 that hired you. A $3/hour “win” that adds an hour of commute and $400 of rent is not a win. Walk the offer with a rent listing open, not with the school’s placement flyer.

What actually moves the number after year one

The certificate is the door. The raise comes from who you sign for, nights, and whether you hold IA or a scarce type. Inspection Authorization in a busy GA shop can mean $8,000–$25,000 of extra annual capacity — or nothing extra at a 145 that never uses it. Avionics paper and an FCC GROL move a different SOC. None of those levers are “BLS went up, so you did.”

1. Shift: nights and weekends are the raise most first-ticket A&Ps actually get.
2. Shop: airline and cargo ceilings sit above GA; the learning curve sits the other way.
3. City: confirm OEWS and rent in the same afternoon.
4. Paper: IA, a type, or GROL only pay when the work is attached.
5. Overtime: ask for last year’s typical check, not the theoretical hourly.

If you are still choosing a school, the money desk is not the only desk. Calendar and debt live on how to get an A&P and how long it takes. Pay without a ticket is a thought experiment. A ticket without a shop that will take you is a framed wall hanging. Run both.

Figures are for planning. Verify current BLS OEWS tables and any union contract before you move cities or sign a training loan. Aviation Titans is independent editorial, not a school or airline.