2026 NBAA Compensation Survey Finds Business Aviation Salaries Rising by Up to Nearly 7%
Why It MattersAs flight departments compete for skilled professionals, audited pay benchmarks become a bargaining reference point that shapes hiring and retention economics across the operator and management segment.
What happened
The National Business Aviation Association released its 2026 Compensation Survey on August 18, 2026, showing salary increases of nearly 7% in certain personnel categories. The survey is administered and audited by BDO USA, P.C., and draws on data from 352 NBAA member participants covering 4,090 flight department employees.
Now in its 40th year, the survey reviews compensation and benefits for aviation department personnel, including those who manage, fly, repair and schedule business aircraft. Data collected covers annual cash compensation — including base salary, overtime and annual incentives — as well as merit increases, long-term incentives, formally recorded duty and flight hours, and weekend and RON days.
Jo Damato, CAM, senior vice president of events and professional engagement at NBAA, said the 2026 survey results show the business aviation industry keeps growing, which helps attract and keep top talent, and said NBAA is committed to providing reliable, audited data on salaries and benefits to help members make informed decisions. Christopher Broyhill, CAM, CEO of AirComp Calculator, said the NBAA Compensation Survey is one of only three survey tools in the industry capturing compensation data, and that a more robust dataset helps everyone. NBAA has partnered with independent auditor BDO since 2019. The survey is available to NBAA business and operating members, with participating members receiving results free of charge, while non-participating member companies may purchase access to the interactive web resource.
Industry impact & what to watch
Pay surveys like this one function as the reference point flight departments use to set offers and justify raises, which matters most in a labor market where qualified pilots, technicians and schedulers are in short supply. An audited dataset spanning 352 companies and thousands of employees gives both employers and job seekers a shared basis for negotiation instead of relying on informal comparisons.
The value of this kind of survey depends on participation: NBAA member companies that contribute data get free access to results, while non-participants must purchase them, which creates an incentive structure that keeps the sample large enough to be credible. With only three such tools in the industry capturing compensation data, according to Christopher Broyhill, the depth of this particular dataset carries outsized weight in setting pay norms across the sector.
What remains to be seen is how individual flight departments and management companies translate the nearly 7% increase figure into actual budget decisions for the coming hiring cycle, and whether the pace of increases NBAA has now tracked across 40 years continues or levels off as the labor market shifts.
