Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
First year at any airline is always going to be low. My first year at a commuter I made $27.5k. Last 4 years I averaged $94k, with one year at $106k. My first year at a legacy I'll make $40k +/-, of course second year I'll be where I was when I left the commuter world + 16% 401k contribution, profit sharing, much better nonrev benefits, MUCH better job stability, MUCH higher top out pay (200's), way better flying, better airplane, etc. Still hurts to take a $55k pay cut though!
From what I hear my previous commuter is having no issues filling new hire classes, they've hired 80 since October with plans to hire 180-200 this year.
That's impressive figures - and I doubt your old company is having trouble filling seats if they're starting guys at $27k/yr (I assume that doesn't take into account per-diem?)
When I was at the regionals (06-09) I cleared about 21k my first year, managed 42k my second year with most of that at Captain salary, during year 3 I made 48K with about a 50/50 split between Captain and downgrade to FO. Our FO salary topped out around 42k after 6 years, the friends I had who were downgraded in 08' with me upgraded again in January 2013, reaching the maximum 48k salary and staying there for a year. As of right now most of those guys who've finally re-upgraded are 8 year Captains making about 80-90k, which really isn't a bad salary for flying around the skies...not great, but not bad.
Airline salaries are always top-loaded, the old adage is "pay your dues", guys get in making pennies with the hope of making big $$ by the time they leave. It's a seniority based system, which limits your lateral mobility (i.e. if you leave company A for company B you start over in pay...and there's no fast track to the big $$ again). The end result is, if your company goes kaput, or is absorbed into another entity, you start back over at year one.
A very unlucky friend of mine found himself failing out of training at his first company, moving onto a really crappy secondary company to get some more experience, finally getting hired with a good company only to get furloughed, and then starting over at another company where he's been the last 4 years. He finally upgraded to Captain about a year ago, but his journey started in 2006 and he managed to remain on first year pay for about 4 years. Luck of the draw.
My neighbor is a Captain he started out with Piedmont Airlines and US Airways purchased them. He has been with US Air since the purchase and now US Air has merged with American. He has come out better with the merger as far as his pay and he is now flying international.
It seems to me we should have pilots available from the Air Force when we ever get out of fighting wars.
It seems to me we should have pilots available from the Air Force when we ever get out of fighting wars.
The problem with that is that by the time they are able to leave the Air Force, they are making pretty good money. Those with families can't afford the drastic pay cut to go work at the airlines. I know an Air Force pilot that went into a totally non-aviation field and made over two times what he would have as a civilian pilot.
Reports have long warned that America's airlines were on the verge of a pilot shortage, but today the Wall Street Journal proclaims that it has arrived "sooner and more severely than expected." Regional carriers are canceling flights—on Saturday, for example, Great Lakes Aviation said that "due to the severe industry-wide pilot shortage" it was suspending flights to six small cities that it alone services. That's hurting their bigger partners, who are feeling the pinch themselves; United and Delta are both recalling furloughed pilots.
The problem with that is that by the time they are able to leave the Air Force, they are making pretty good money. Those with families can't afford the drastic pay cut to go work at the airlines. I know an Air Force pilot that went into a totally non-aviation field and made over two times what he would have as a civilian pilot.
Yep, as an AF pilot that's my life plan. Get the retirement, either in military form, or the diluted civil servant one if I get kicked off the military teet early, then move on to something else until age 60. I have no intention on drudging through the lifestyle of a sub 10-year seniority mainline airline pilot in my late 40s/early 50s. Additionally, the days of having someone pay me a living wage for pulling Gs and flying upside down would be over for me post-military, at which point the only outlet for vocational satisfaction would come from flying civilian aerobatic personal aircraft on my own dime. That being the case, I can do that while working at the proverbial post office to supplement the retirement income and still be home every night.
The reality is that for me, dozing in the right seat of an airliner, gone from mama and the kiddo 250 days out of the year in my late 40s isn't suitable motivation. Even $100Kish/yr means squat if I don't have Saturday/Sunday off, like the rest of society that has families do. To each their own of course. Senior airline guys do have a clutch setup schedule wise, no doubt. I'm just unwilling to sacrifice my 40s and 50s, the time which probably coincides with the last decade of my parents life and that where my son would be of high school age, in order to get there. That's what my 20s would have been for.
If I was that serious about flying for a living, I would have foregone a family, only given the AF 10 years, or gotten into the airline rat race early in my 20s, so as to be of a supra-10-year seniority at a mainline airline in my 30s. Alas, I don't enjoy flying a transport category aircraft much at all, to re-shape my pedestrian life to that drastic degree. Flying B-52s frankly bored me to tears, outside of air-refueling the old POS or doing light weight touch-n-go's. My current job flying aerobatic trainers simply doesn't exist in the civilian world, outside niche rich boy warbird training camps. So I'm soaking it in as long as I can, and part with the G-suit completely when the good Lord dictates.
So the REAL issue isn't a shortage of pilots per se. It's just a shortage of pilots willing to accept the peanuts for pay that the airlines are offering.
This is an identical problem in the trucking industry. Every major carrier is belly aching about a shortage of [quality] drivers. But funny how none of said carriers are willing to attract new drivers though better pay and/or working conditions.
Hindsight 2020 - You, sir, are an aviator. Great plan. do the time and when they throw you out get an antique Stearman and keep flying upside down.
The underlying economics of flight simply dictate that, without extensive government subsidy, carrying passengers on airplanes simply cost more then the passengers can afford to be profitable for the owners. Ironically it is very similar to passenger rail transport. Airplanes, like trains, only make money carrying, for airlines, very valuable stuff quickly, and with railroads lots of relatively cheap stuff efficiently. Passengers are neither.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
