Pilot Hiring Under Management: How Crewing Actually Works

Who actually employs the pilots on a managed aircraft?

The management company is the legal employer; the owner is the customer. Pilots are W-2 employees of Jet Aviation, Clay Lacy, Solairus, Executive Jet Management, or whichever Part 135 certificate holder is operating the aircraft. That structure exists for a reason: the operator holds the certificate, carries the workers' comp and unemployment liability, runs the drug and alcohol program, and is the entity FAA enforcement actions land against. An owner who tries to direct-employ pilots while keeping the aircraft on a 135 certificate creates a control problem the FSDO will eventually notice.

What the owner gets in exchange for surrendering employer status is approval rights. Every reputable management agreement gives the owner final say on captain hiring, and most extend that to the first officer. The operator sources candidates from its bench, screens them, and presents two or three finalists. The owner interviews, picks, and the operator processes the hire. If the chemistry breaks down later, the owner can request a swap without firing anyone — the pilot moves to another aircraft in the fleet.

What do managed-aircraft pilots actually get paid?

Captain pay in 2024 runs roughly $150K on a light jet to $400K-plus on a heavy or ultra-long-range aircraft, with first officers at $100K–$250K. A Phenom 300 captain at a mid-tier operator is in the $160K–$200K range. A Challenger 350 captain runs $220K–$280K. A Global 6500 or Gulfstream G650 captain is $320K–$400K, and top-of-market G700 captains are pushing past $425K base before per diem and bonus. These are base salaries; loaded cost to the owner runs another 25–35% on top once you add health insurance, 401(k) match (typically 4–6%), long-term disability, life insurance, loss-of-license coverage, per diem ($75–$125/day on the road), and payroll taxes.

The post-2022 pilot market reset these numbers hard. Captains who were making $185K in 2019 are at $260K now on the same airframe, and operators that didn't reprice lost crews to the airlines and to fractionals. Owners signing fresh management agreements should expect the budget to reflect current market, not the pro forma the operator showed them three years ago.

How is training handled and who pays for it?

Initial and recurrent training are paid by the owner, either bundled into the monthly management fee or invoiced as a direct pass-through. Expect $25K–$45K per pilot per year for recurrent at FlightSafety or CAE on a midsize jet, more on heavies. Initial type ratings for a new-hire pilot run $35K–$75K depending on aircraft, plus 10–14 days of pilot salary while they're in the schoolhouse and not flying your trip.

The line item to watch in the agreement is who eats training cost when a pilot leaves. Standard market practice is a training bond: if the pilot resigns within 12–18 months of initial training, they owe a prorated refund. That money should flow back to the owner, not stay with the operator. Read the clause; some agreements quietly retain the recovered training cost as operator revenue.

How much crew does a managed aircraft actually need?

Plan on 2.5 to 3 pilots per aircraft for typical owner utilization of 200–350 hours per year. Two pilots cannot legally cover a calendar if the owner flies on weekends, holidays, and into long international legs — FAR 117-style rest rules aren't strictly required under Part 91 or 135 for most managed flying, but operator FOMs impose duty and rest limits that approximate them, and insurance underwriters now require minimum rest schedules as a policy condition.

A dedicated two-pilot crew works for an owner who flies 150 hours a year on predictable domestic trips. Above that, or on any aircraft doing transoceanic work, you need a third pilot in rotation or access to a contract pilot pool. Most major operators run a floating pool of company pilots typed in your aircraft who can fill in; that's one of the real economic arguments for fleet management over single-aircraft Part 91 employment.

Can the owner request specific pilots or fire them?

Yes on requesting, qualified yes on firing. Owners can and do interview, select, and refuse specific pilots. What an owner cannot do is direct the operator to terminate a pilot for cause — that's an employment law matter between the operator and its employee. What the owner can do is invoke the agreement's reassignment clause and require that a pilot no longer be assigned to their aircraft. The operator then moves the pilot to another tail or, if there isn't one, manages the separation on its own.

This distinction matters when personalities break down. A captain who is technically competent but clashes with a principal's family is a reassignment, not a firing. A captain who fails a checkride or violates SOPs is the operator's problem to handle. Keep those lanes clean and the agreement works; blur them and you create wrongful-termination exposure that lands back on the owner through the indemnification clause.

What should an owner negotiate in the crewing section of the management agreement?

Push on five points. First, explicit captain and FO approval rights, not just "consultation." Second, a named crew commitment — your assigned pilots, by name, with a notice period before reassignment to another aircraft. Third, recurrent training scheduling that respects the owner's calendar, not just the operator's. Fourth, training bond recovery flowing to the owner. Fifth, a contract pilot rate cap, because operators sometimes charge $1,800–$2,400/day for fill-in pilots when their own bench is short and that becomes a meaningful line item over a year.

The crewing section is where the management company's incentives and the owner's diverge most quietly. The operator wants flexibility to move pilots across the fleet; the owner wants the same two faces in the cockpit every trip. A good agreement names that tension and splits the difference in writing.