Quote:
Originally Posted by thealmighty
PM,
How does the pay work? Is it by hours in the air, miles flown or what?
Great read.
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Thanks for reading and approving. The approval of the almighty has to count for something, right?
So the answer across all of aviation is it varies. Let me explain. Pay is negotiated as part of the contract between the union and the company. Not all airlines have unions, but every one of them has some sort of group representative or company liaison or you get the idea. Corporate and fractional (think part ownership companies like Netjets) pay by the month. A guaranteed amount based on seat. Seat meaning captain of first officer.
In commercial aviation it's almost always flight time. The big exception is SWA which is still based on leg distance. I'm not entirely sure how their pay structure is set up, but I do know those guys are still the highest paid in the US for carrying passengers.
If you want to know who pays the most overall you'd have to look at UPS and FedEx. That is the top of the top, but the flying can be brutal. Lots of overnight flying and working for a company that really sees you as more of a mover of boxes (ala glorified truck driver) than a professional aviator. Still, those guys get paid.
If there is a top, there most certainly is a bottom. The regional pilots who fly contracted routes for the legacies are really sucking hind tit. They have been for a long time. The pendulum is slowly swinging for them, but not fast enough.
So what is flight time? It's that moment from all the doors shut on the plane and the parking break released and we are going flying until we park and the parking break is reset and a door is opened. That's it. In a month, like I said earlier, you are looking at lines somewhere between 70-85 hours. Reserves get a guaranteed 73 hours of pay.
There are a whole bunch of other things that factor in as well. We have a pay protection of 5 hours per day. We have a protection of 1 hr of credit for every 3.5 hours of time away from base. So if you get stuck with a 3 day trip to Grand Cayman and say you have a 36 hour layover there, your trip only has about 9.5 hours of flying. But you have a min of 15 hours (5hr/day x 3) and a protection of about 13 hrs and 10 min based on time away from base (all of this is just an example). The value of your trip would be 15 hours even though it only had 9.5 hours of flying. You don't get penalized for the company not being able to build a "good" trip.
Pilots also get a per diem to offset the costs of traveling. This per diem adds, on average about $1.85/hr for every hours away from base and can also vary based on destination. International gets a boost. Every company pays a different per diem rate. The regional pilots (again) are the lowest. A typical 4 day might be 78 hours away from base. That translates into $144 in per diem. Most pilots use the per diem to boost their salary. I wish I could spend that every trip. I could eat better than I do. Lol.
I've never been shy about talking about pilot pay. For the most part it's a matter of public record. You can go to airlinepilotcentral and look up each companies pay rates, fleet sizes, and even some work rules. Just as a comparison of some companies:
5th year first officer at:
Delta 737; about $128/hr
Spirit Airbus; $90/hr
Southwest 737; $130/hr
Jet Blue Airbus; $109/hr
Skywest RJ; $42/hr
Endeavor (Delta) RJ; $38/hr
Fed Ex 757; $135/hr
UPS all; $155/hr
Not all cargo companies are created equal either.
Southern Air, Cincinnati based, 747; $79/hr
This whole industry is such a crapshoot. The fact that you can't take your experience with you when you change companies really ties you to where you are. Seniority is everything and getting on with a really good company is the top of the mountain. It's the achievement of a life of hard work. It's the goal we are all striving for. Thankfully, I was able to get mine about 19 months ago.