The electronics inside an aircraft: radios, radar, navigation and autopilots. High pay for a short path.
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Pay, the path, pros and cons and the facts on one printable page. Good for a wall or a guidance counsellor.
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What you earn and what it costs to get there.
Typical
$82,280
Starting out
$49,410
Airline or defense senior
$113,680
The national median is $82,280 a year, and the bottom tenth start near $49,410. This is one of the best paid careers on this site that needs no degree. Airlines, manufacturers and defense contractors pay at the top; small general aviation shops pay at the bottom.
$24 to $29 an hour
Junior technician or apprentice at an avionics shop
Pay climbs quickly once you can work unsupervised and hold the certificates that let a shop bill your work.
About $113,680
Airline line stations, manufacturers and defense work
Overtime, night shift premiums and travel pay for field work push real earnings higher again. Aircraft do not stop for weekends.
Tuition, fees, exams and kit. Not rent, food or travel
The low end is a community college avionics or electronics program at in state tuition, the federal operator license exam, and a basic set of hand tools. The high end is a private aviation technical school, which costs many times as much for the same job. Shops supply the expensive test gear, and many airlines and repair stations pay tuition for people already on the payroll. File the FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid), because a Pell Grant on the cheap route can leave you with almost no debt.
Fill in the FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid) first. A community college electronics program plus a Pell Grant can leave you with almost no debt, and many airlines and repair stations pay tuition for people already on the payroll.
Flight benefits
Airline employees and their families fly standby for very little. It is the perk everyone in the industry mentions first.
Shift premiums
Most heavy maintenance happens overnight, and nights pay extra.
Health insurance, paid time off and a 401(k) retirement plan
Standard at airlines, manufacturers and large repair stations.
Union contracts at the airlines
Many airline maintenance groups are unionized, with pay steps set by years of service.
The exact path from high school to qualified.
One to two years of electronics training, then certificates you collect on the job.
High school
Grades 11 and 12
Physics, math and any electronics or computer course. Learn to solder properly; it is a real interview question.
Avionics or electronics program
1 to 2 years
A 1 to 2 year community college program or an aviation technical school course in avionics or aircraft electronics.
First job in a shop
Straight after
Repair stations, airlines and manufacturers hire graduates and train them on their own equipment. Registered apprenticeships in avionics are listed on the government apprenticeship site.
Collect the certificates
1 to 3 years in
The Federal Communications Commission General Radiotelephone Operator License covers work on aircraft radio transmitters. The Aircraft Electronics Association runs a Certified Aircraft Electronics Technician credential.
Sign-off authority
2 to 5 years
A Federal Aviation Administration repairman certificate is issued through your employer and lets you approve work. Some technicians also earn the Airframe and Powerplant mechanic certificate to widen what they can sign for.
Physics
Circuits, radio waves and signals are the whole job.
Math
Algebra and trigonometry show up in antenna and signal work.
Electronics or computer technology
The closest thing to the real work you can take at 17.
English
You read dense manuals and write entries that become a legal record.
There is no single national license you must hold before an avionics shop will hire you. What is regulated is the work: a repair has to be done by or under an approved repair station or a certificated mechanic, and it has to be signed off by someone the Federal Aviation Administration says may sign it. That is why the certificates matter even though nobody checks them at the door. About half of avionics technicians report a certificate after high school as their highest training, with the rest split between a high school diploma and a two year degree.
Things you don't need, but that help.
General Radiotelephone Operator License
Issued by the Federal Communications Commission, held for life, and needed to work on aircraft radio transmitters. A standard line in job postings.
Certified Aircraft Electronics Technician
Run by the Aircraft Electronics Association, the trade body for avionics shops.
Airframe and Powerplant mechanic certificate
The broad Federal Aviation Administration mechanic certificate. Holding it alongside avionics skills makes you very hard to replace.
Manufacturer training
Garmin, Honeywell and Collins run courses on their own equipment, and shops pay for them.
Eligibility for a security clearance
Defense and government work needs one, and it comes with a pay bump.
Soldering and wiring practice
A lot of the job is building and repairing wiring looms to a standard.
A passport
Field service work can mean flying out to an aircraft anywhere in the world.
Patience for paperwork
Every task is recorded, and the record is a legal document.
The armed forces train avionics technicians from scratch, pay you during training, and hand you years of experience on complicated aircraft. Time in service can count toward the experience the Federal Aviation Administration requires for a mechanic certificate, and veterans' education benefits can pay for civilian school afterwards. The trade-off is a fixed enlistment and no say in where you live.
Day to day, pros and cons, where you'd work.
Much of the work happens at night, because that is when aircraft are on the ground. You pick up a reported fault: a radio that drops out, an autopilot that will not hold a heading, a display that flickers in the cold. Then wiring diagrams, a meter, and crawling into spaces aircraft were not designed for. Installations are different work again: building a harness on a bench, fitting it, then testing every function before the aircraft flies. Everything you touch is written down and signed.
The good
The hard parts
Things people don't tell you.
A large airliner carries well over a hundred miles of wiring bundled through the airframe. Tracing one intermittent fault through that is exactly what avionics technicians are paid for.
Commercial aircraft are struck roughly once a year each on average. The skin carries the current around the outside, and the electronics inside are shielded and bonded so the systems survive it.
Since January 2020, most aircraft flying in controlled United States airspace have had to carry equipment that broadcasts their satellite position continuously, a system called Automatic Dependent Surveillance Broadcast. Fitting it kept avionics shops booked out for years.
Federal projections put avionics technician employment on a faster than average growth track through 2034, while the pool of trained technicians keeps shrinking as older ones retire.
Last checked September 2026. Pay figures are typical full-time annual amounts in United States dollars, based on Bureau of Labor Statistics wage data and published pay scales. They vary by state, employer and experience. Tuition is for in-state students at public schools unless the card says otherwise.