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Pilot Jobs With 1,500 Hours 2026: 19 Airlines Where 1,001 to 1,500 Hours Gets You In

19 airlines11 with the F/O seat open12 in the USAFrom the v1prep jobs boardUpdated 24 October 2026

1,500 hours is where the airline transport pilot license begins: ICAO Annex 1, the FAA and EASA all set it as the flight time for that license, and in the United States an airline First Officer needs the ATP certificate itself. Of the 62 airlines on our jobs board that publish a First Officer entry for pilots without a type rating, 19 set it above 1,000 and at most 1,500 hours, every one of them at exactly 1,500 hours: 3 in Europe, 12 in North America, 1 in the Middle East, 1 in Asia-Pacific and 2 in Africa. At the last check 11 of them had the First Officer seat open, and the status of 6 was unconfirmed. The same number hides different logbooks: total time at one airline, turbine time or time in command at another, hours on multi-pilot or heavy airplanes at a third. This page lists each airline with what it counts toward its 1,500, which certificate it wants when you apply, the rules behind the number and the traps in a 1,500-hour vacancy. Every published minimum, low or high, is on the hours requirements page.

A white United Airlines Boeing 737 with a blue belly and a blue globe on its tail, landing gear down, under cloud.
A United Airlines Boeing 737-800 landing at Baltimore-Washington International Airport, Maryland.Photo: Acroterion · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons
19airlines with a 1,001-1,500 h F/O entry
11with the F/O seat open
12of them in the USA
58 of 62published non-rated F/O entries met at 1,500 h

Always confirm on the airline’s own careers page before applying. Every figure here is what the airline published at the date shown against it on our jobs board; entries marked Unconfirmed are ones whose requirements we found but whose current vacancy status we could not establish from the airline’s own pages. Vacancies open and close without notice.

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The airlines with a 1,001 to 1,500-hour entry (19)

Each airline whose lowest published First Officer entry for a pilot without a type rating falls in the band, by its status at the last check: 12 recruiting for at least one seat. The minimum is the airline’s own summary, in its own measure of hours; the type rating column is what its First Officer entries ask.

AirlineRegionPublished minimumF/O seatType ratingRight to workChecked
Alaska Airlines (incl. Hawaiian) RecruitingNorth America1,500 h · 500 h turbineRecruitingNot requiredUS13 October 2026
American Airlines RecruitingNorth America1,500 hRecruitingNot requiredUS · unrestricted14 October 2026
Breeze Airways RecruitingNorth America1,500 h · 750 h fixed-wingRecruitingNot requiredUS21 September 2026
British Airways RecruitingEurope500 h or 100 sectors on type (rated F/O)RecruitingRated and non-rated streamsUK24 October 2026
Delta Air Lines RecruitingNorth America1,500 h · 250 h PIC/SIC · 1,000 h turbine preferredRecruitingNot requiredUS · no sponsorship13 October 2026
Ethiopian Airlines RecruitingAfricaCapt 3,500 h jet · FO 1,500 h (closed)UnconfirmedNot requiredExpat contract · Capt up to 6016 October 2026
flyadeal RecruitingMiddle EastFO 1,500 h A320/330 · Capt 4,000 hRecruitingRated and non-rated streamsSaudi work permit · NTR for nationals29 September 2026
Frontier Airlines RecruitingNorth America1,500 hRecruitingNot requiredUS16 October 2026
JetBlue RecruitingNorth America1,500 h · 500 h fixed-wingRecruitingNot requiredUS · no sponsorship14 October 2026
Piedmont Airlines RecruitingNorth America1,500 h · R-ATP acceptedRecruitingNot requiredUS · no sponsorship24 October 2026
Scoot RecruitingAsia-Pacific1,500 h on 5,700 kg+ airplanesRecruitingNot requiredPass sponsored21 September 2026
United Airlines RecruitingNorth America1,500 h direct entryRecruitingNot requiredUS · no sponsorship13 October 2026
Atlas Air UnconfirmedNorth America1,500 h · 2,500 h preferredUnconfirmedNot requiredUS · 24-month passport22 October 2026
Cargolux UnconfirmedEurope1,500 h multi-pilot CS-25UnconfirmedNot requiredEU18 October 2026
FedEx Express UnconfirmedNorth America1,500 h · 500 h PIC jet/turbopropUnconfirmedNot requiredUS passport · no sponsorship23 October 2026
Norwegian UnconfirmedEurope500 h on B737 if rated · 1,500 h if notUnconfirmedRated and non-rated streamsEU/EEC · unrestricted passport21 September 2026
South African Airways UnconfirmedAfrica1,500 h (200 h multi-engine)UnconfirmedNot requiredSA citizen23 October 2026
UPS Airlines UnconfirmedNorth America1,500 h · 1,000 h PIC jet/turbopropUnconfirmedNot requiredUS · no sponsorship14 October 2026
Allegiant Air Not recruitingNorth America1,500 h · R-ATP 750–1,250 h (relayed)Not recruitingNot requiredUS · no sponsorship (relayed)23 October 2026

First Officer seat open at the last check: Alaska Airlines (incl. Hawaiian), American Airlines, Breeze Airways, British Airways, Delta Air Lines, flyadeal, Frontier Airlines, JetBlue, Piedmont Airlines, Scoot and United Airlines. Closed or paused: Allegiant Air. Unconfirmed: Atlas Air, Cargolux, FedEx Express, Norwegian, South African Airways and UPS Airlines.

What each airline counts toward the 1,500

The airline’s figure, then what its record says those hours must be, in its own words:

An open logbook on a wooden table, its two pages ruled into many narrow columns and rows.
The pages of a pilot's logbook, ruled into columns for the details and times of each flight. The hours an airline asks for, total or in command, are counted from these entries.Photo: Author:Basil Newburn · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons
  1. 1,500 hours at Alaska Airlines (incl. Hawaiian), total documented time, 500 of them fixed-wing turbine, airplane and powered-lift combined, on both its Alaska and its Hawaiian seniority lists (checked 13 October 2026)
  2. 1,500 hours at American Airlines, total time, with a current unrestricted FAA ATP certificate held, by its First Officer posting as a job board relays it (checked 14 October 2026)
  3. 1,500 hours at Breeze Airways, total time, simulator and flight engineer time excluded, with 750 fixed-wing and 500 cross-country, as search results of its pages showed (checked 21 September 2026)
  4. 1,500 hours at British Airways, on a ZFTT-qualifying type, flown within the last 12 months, as the alternative to 500 hours or 100 sectors on the A320, in an older, undated advert for its Heathrow A320 fleet; whether any of its direct-entry listings is open is among the points we could not confirm (checked 24 October 2026)
  5. 1,500 hours at Delta Air Lines, total documented flight time, with 250 as pilot in command or second in command in airplanes, citing 14 CFR 61.159(a)(5), and 50 on multi-engine airplanes; 1,000 hours of fixed-wing turbine time is preferred, and how strictly Delta applies its turbine figures is among the points we could not confirm (checked 13 October 2026)
  6. 1,500 hours at Ethiopian Airlines, on multi-pilot airplanes, on a non-rated 737NG First Officer advert that job boards copied and that is marked closed; whether Ethiopian still runs a non-rated First Officer stream is among the points we could not confirm (checked 16 October 2026)
  7. 1,500 hours at flyadeal, on the A320 or A330 family on its type-rated posting, or on turbojets with FMC and EFIS in place of the A320 rating on another, as search results of its postings showed (checked 29 September 2026)
  8. 1,500 hours at Frontier Airlines, total time, counting only fixed-wing and rotary-wing flying: hours in simulators, or as flight engineer, navigator, weapon systems officer or UAV crew, do not count; it prefers 2,500 in all, 750 multi-engine, 500 in command and 500 on jets or turboprops (checked 16 October 2026)
  9. 1,500 hours at JetBlue, total flight time, at least 500 of them in fixed-wing airplanes; it prefers 3,500 or more, counting turbine helicopter time but not simulator or flight engineer time, with more than 1,000 as pilot in command of fixed-wing turbine aircraft (checked 14 October 2026)
  10. 1,500 hours at Piedmont Airlines, total, with 50 multi-engine and 250 in command, or the restricted-ATP minimums, for which its First Officer page prints no figure (checked 24 October 2026)
  11. 1,500 hours at Scoot, more than 1,500 hours of fixed-wing time on airplanes of 5,700 kg maximum takeoff mass or more, as search results of its pages showed (checked 21 September 2026)
  12. 1,500 hours at United Airlines, total flight time for direct entry, with 1,000 hours of fixed-wing turbine time and 100 in the last 12 months preferred (checked 13 October 2026)
  13. 1,500 hours at Atlas Air, total time, with 2,500 in a Part 121, 135 or 91 or military environment preferred (checked 22 October 2026)
  14. 1,500 hours at Cargolux, multi-pilot and multi-engine, on jets or on CS-25 turboprops above 10 tonnes or 19 seats (checked 18 October 2026)
  15. 1,500 hours at FedEx Express, fixed-wing, student time included, with at least 500 as pilot in command of jets, multi-engine turboprops of 12,500 lb or more or certain single-engine turboprops such as the T-6 and the PC-12, and 1,000 such hours preferred; simulator, helicopter, flight engineer and navigator time does not count (checked 23 October 2026)
  16. 1,500 hours at Norwegian, total time on its non-rated route, 500 of them on multi-crew, multi-engine aircraft, or 800 in all for military pilots; its 737-rated route asks only 500 hours on type, and both vacancies closed on 31 August 2026 (checked 21 September 2026)
  17. 1,500 hours at South African Airways, of flying, at least 200 of them on multi-engine aircraft, on a South African frozen ATPL with a multi-engine instrument rating, by its undated careers page (checked 23 October 2026)
  18. 1,500 hours at UPS Airlines, fixed-wing pilot time, with 1,000 as pilot in command, as 14 CFR 1.1 defines it, of fixed-wing jets or multi-engine turboprops, though whether that 1,000 is a minimum or a preference is among the points we could not confirm; military candidates may add 0.3 hours per sortie (checked 14 October 2026)
  19. 1,500 hours at Allegiant Air, the ATP aeronautical experience of 14 CFR 61.159(a), with 250 in an airplane as pilot in command, 100 of them cross-country and 25 at night, and 75 of instrument time, every hour logged as 14 CFR 61.51 requires and no conversion of flight hours accepted, by job-board copies of its posting; whether it takes each restricted-ATP tier is among the points we could not confirm (checked 23 October 2026)

Read the qualifier, not the headline. A flight instructor with 1,500 hours of single-engine piston time meets the total-time figures and none of the turbine, command-on-jets or multi-pilot ones. The airlines that take First Officers at 500 hours or less are on the low-hour pilot jobs page.

Certificate in hand, or the experience and the written

In the United States the hours are only half the requirement. A pilot may serve as second in command in a Part 121 operation only with an airline transport pilot certificate and a type rating for the aircraft (14 CFR 121.436(b)), so every US airline here ends with you holding the ATP; they differ on whether you must hold it when you apply. Held when you apply: American wants a current unrestricted FAA ATP certificate with the multi-engine rating (checked 14 October 2026); United an unrestricted FAA ATP certificate with the multi-engine rating (checked 13 October 2026); JetBlue an unrestricted FAA ATP certificate with airplane and multi-engine ratings, and an FCC radiotelephone permit (checked 14 October 2026); Frontier an FAA ATP certificate and an FCC restricted radiotelephone permit (checked 16 October 2026); FedEx an FAA ATP certificate and an FCC radiotelephone permit (checked 23 October 2026); UPS a current unrestricted FAA ATP certificate with the multi-engine rating (checked 14 October 2026); Atlas a restricted or unrestricted ATP certificate, though whether it still accepts the restricted one is among the points we could not confirm (checked 22 October 2026). The experience and the written are enough to apply: Delta takes an FAA Commercial certificate with the instrument rating, a current ATP written test and all the ATP aeronautical experience of 14 CFR 61.159 (checked 13 October 2026); Alaska does the same on its Alaska list, preferring the ATP certificate, while its Hawaiian list wants the ATP held (checked 13 October 2026); Breeze a Commercial certificate with multi-engine and instrument ratings and a current ATP written if you do not hold the ATP, as search results showed (checked 21 September 2026); Allegiant a Commercial certificate with multi-engine and instrument ratings, or an ATP, with the ATP-CTP graduation certificate and a current ATP written test, by job-board copies of its posting (checked 23 October 2026). Meeting the requirements is enough to apply: Piedmont asks that you meet the minimum requirements to hold an ATP or restricted ATP with the multi-engine rating, by its First Officer page, and pays the ATP-CTP course and the ATP written for its cadets (checked 24 October 2026). The FAA ATP itself comes at 23 under 14 CFR 61.159, or at 21 under the restricted-ATP rules of 61.160 (61.153(a)). The FAA ATP written test guide covers the written, and the USA country page the whole route.

Outside the United States each airline names its own license: Norwegian wants an EASA ATPL, or a CPL with all the ATPL theory, with a valid multi-engine instrument rating, preferably issued by Denmark, Sweden or Norway, any other EASA license to be converted to one of those within 12 months of your contract (checked 21 September 2026); Cargolux a Part-FCL ATPL, a CPL with instrument rating and ATPL theory, or an MPL, and your agreement to transfer the license to Luxembourg (checked 18 October 2026); Scoot a CAAS or other ICAO CPL or ATPL, as search results showed (checked 21 September 2026); South African Airways a South African frozen ATPL with a multi-engine instrument rating (checked 23 October 2026); Ethiopian a current JAA, FAA or ICAO ATPL, as its postings word it, with an authentication letter from the authority that issued it (checked 16 October 2026); flyadeal a current ICAO ATPL, naming GACA, FAA and EASA licenses, as search results showed (checked 29 September 2026); British Airways a UK license, held or with the transfer to the UK CAA under way (checked 24 October 2026). Under EASA’s rule a CPL with a multi-engine instrument rating, MCC training and the ATPL theory, the frozen ATPL, can become a full ATPL at 1,500 hours with 500 of them multi-pilot, through an ATPL skill test (next section).

The rules behind 1,500 hours

How to read a 1,500-hour vacancy

A white FedEx Express Boeing 767-300F freighter with a purple tail, landing gear down on final approach.
A FedEx Express Boeing 767-300F, N168FE, on final approach to Boston in July 2026.Photo: 4300streetcar · CC BY 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Cadet and pathway routes at these airlines

16 of the 19 airlines here also name a cadet, academy or pathway route, from ab-initio training to a partner airline you fly for until you have the hours; some lead to an interview or a conditional offer, others promise no job. The routes, worded as recorded:

Who pays, and what each scheme leads to, is compared on the cadet programs page.

Below and above the band

With 1,500 hours in the measure each airline asks for, you reach the lowest published First Officer entry for pilots without a type rating at 58 of the 62 airlines on our board that publish one: these 19, and 39 with a lower figure, 33 of them below 1,000 hours. Just below the band, at 1,000 hours, are Arajet, Loganair, Porter Airlines, Republic Airways, Copa Airlines and LATAM Airlines Group. Above it: 2,000 hours at Riyadh Air and Air Canada; 2,500 hours at Southwest Airlines; 4,000 hours at Japan Airlines. The direct entry Captain jobs page lists the airlines that take Captains from outside, where the published minimums start higher.

A320 and B737 question banks — 5,400+ questions on the systems of the A320 and B737 (A320: Alaska Airlines, American Airlines, British Airways, Delta Air Lines, flyadeal, Frontier Airlines, JetBlue, Scoot, United Airlines, South African Airways and Allegiant Air; B737: Alaska Airlines, American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, Ethiopian Airlines, United Airlines, Norwegian and Allegiant Air), and 1,700+ questions for the four FAA writtens, the ATP among them, every answer cited to its source.Start practicing free →

For the selection, the interview guides for Alaska Airlines, American Airlines, British Airways, Delta Air Lines, United Airlines, FedEx Express and Norwegian, the complete interview guide, and the Library’s airline pilot recruitment and selection and commercial and airline transport pilot licenses articles.

Common questions

Which airlines hire First Officers with 1,500 hours? On our jobs board, 19 airlines set their lowest published First Officer entry for pilots without a type rating above 1,000 and at most 1,500 hours: Alaska Airlines, American Airlines, Breeze Airways, British Airways, Delta Air Lines, Ethiopian Airlines, flyadeal, Frontier Airlines, JetBlue, Piedmont Airlines, Scoot, United Airlines, Atlas Air, Cargolux, FedEx Express, Norwegian, South African Airways, UPS Airlines and Allegiant Air. At the last check the seat was open at Alaska Airlines, American Airlines, Breeze Airways, British Airways, Delta Air Lines, flyadeal, Frontier Airlines, JetBlue, Piedmont Airlines, Scoot and United Airlines. With 1,500 hours you also reach the lower entries of 39 more airlines; the tables give the date each airline was checked.

Is 1,500 hours enough for a US airline? It is the FAA’s figure for the unrestricted ATP certificate under 14 CFR 61.159, and a Part 121 First Officer must hold an ATP certificate (14 CFR 121.436(b)), so it is a floor, not a guarantee. American Airlines, United Airlines, JetBlue, Frontier Airlines, FedEx Express, UPS Airlines and Atlas Air want an ATP certificate held when you apply; Delta Air Lines, Alaska Airlines, Breeze Airways and Allegiant Air take the Commercial certificate with the ATP experience and the written, and the ATP follows in training; Piedmont Airlines asks that you meet the minimum requirements for an ATP or a restricted ATP. Several also prefer turbine time or more total time than the minimum.

Do simulator hours count toward 1,500 hours? Up to 100 hours can, under the FAA’s rule (in an approved course, 14 CFR 61.159(a)(6)) and EASA’s (FCL.510.A, no more than 25 of them in an FNPT), and ICAO Annex 1 leaves it to the licensing authority within the same 100. Some airlines count none: JetBlue does not count simulator or flight engineer time toward its preferred total; Frontier counts only fixed-wing and rotary-wing flying; FedEx counts no simulator, helicopter, flight engineer or navigator time; Breeze leaves out simulator and flight engineer time, as search results showed.

What is the difference between 1,500 hours under the FAA and EASA? Both set 1,500 hours for the airline transport license. The FAA asks for 250 as pilot in command or second in command performing those duties, 500 cross-country, 100 at night and 75 of instrument time, and its restricted ATP lowers the total to 750, 1,000 or 1,250 hours. EASA adds that 500 of the 1,500 are in multi-pilot operations, and European airlines hire on the frozen ATPL long before 1,500 hours.

Can I get a job with 1,000 hours instead? Yes, at airlines whose entry is lower: 39 airlines on our board publish a figure below this band, Arajet, Loganair, Porter Airlines, Republic Airways, Copa Airlines and LATAM Airlines Group at exactly 1,000 hours. In the United States, graduates of FAA-authorized aviation degrees qualify for a restricted ATP at 1,000 or 1,250 hours, and US military pilots at 750 (14 CFR 61.160).

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