RAF Flight Lieutenant Salary 2026/27: OF-2 Take-Home
Flight Lieutenant is the senior junior-officer rank in the RAF, equivalent to Captain in the Army and Lieutenant in the Royal Navy. On the AFPRB officer pay scale in force from 1 April 2026, an OF-2 is paid £54,716 at level 1 rising to £64,852 at level 8, figures that already include X-Factor. They reflect the 3.6% award the Government accepted in full on 9 June 2026, backdated to 1 April 2026.
Typical pay & take-home
- Median gross
- £59,784
- Typical range
- £54,716–£64,852
- Take-home at median
- £45,232 England, no pension applied — use the salary calculator for your scheme.
At the median for this profession, you earn about 53% above the UK full-time median (£39,039), placing you in the top 21% of UK earners.
What influences raf flight lieutenant pay
The whole rank sits above the £50,270 higher-rate threshold, and because the Armed Forces Pension Scheme takes no contribution there is nothing deducted before Income Tax to bring taxable pay back under it. The marginal rate across the rank is 42%.
That same feature moves the Child Benefit charge closer. In the NHS, Teachers or Civil Service schemes a pension contribution reduces adjusted net income before the £60,000 threshold is tested; here gross pay and adjusted net income are the same figure, so an officer reaches the charge at a lower salary than a public servant on comparable gross pay.
Flying Pay and other specialist payments are set separately from the main officer spine and are paid on top of these rates.
Career progression
- OF-1 (Pilot Officer, Flying Officer), level 1: £35,925.
- OF-1, level 5: £47,351.
- OF-2 (Flight Lieutenant), level 1: £54,716.
- OF-2, level 8: £64,852.
- OF-3 (Squadron Leader) next.
Frequently asked questions
- What is take-home for an RAF Flight Lieutenant?
- On £59,784, the level 5 rate, take-home is about £45,232 a year or £3,769 a month after £11,346 Income Tax and £3,206 National Insurance. There is no pension deduction, because the Armed Forces Pension Scheme 2015 is non-contributory. At the £64,852 top of the rank it is about £48,172.
- How does the Child Benefit charge affect Flight Lieutenants?
- The lower increments stay under it and the upper ones do not. The charge starts at £60,000 of adjusted net income, which falls between level 5 at £59,784 and level 6 at £61,474. Above it the charge takes 1% of Child Benefit for every £200, so a two-child household on £64,852 loses about £561 of the £2,337.40 a year it receives. A personal pension contribution reduces adjusted net income and removes the charge.
- Is X-Factor added on top of these figures?
- No. The AFPRB publishes its salary tables including X-Factor, so the rates above are already the full pensionable salary. Treating them as base pay and adding 14.5% overstates gross by around a seventh, which is a common error in salary guides for the Armed Forces.