ChicagoFlyer From United States of America, joined Jan 2006, 247 posts, RR: 0 Posted (5 years 11 months 3 weeks 5 days ago) and read 2343 times:
I was browsing through the MaxJet web site, and noticed that their flight and cabin crew are paid salaries rather than hourly.
Max Jet Career site says that $26,000 is the starting salary for US Cabin crew, and the Airline Pilot Central says that $90,000 is the captain's starting salary, with $50K for the first officer.
I guess I am surprised as I have never heard about the crew not being paid by the hour. Are these just annualized hourly numbers, or is it indeed a salary with some level of work commitment? If so, does it mean that the crew are compensated more or less than the ones at legacy airlines who are flying transatlantic? And are there other airlines with similar policies?
KAUSpilot From United States of America, joined Jan 2002, 1955 posts, RR: 37 Reply 1, posted (5 years 11 months 3 weeks 5 days ago) and read 2289 times:
90k and 50k are pretty bad numbers for widebody pilots, especially on the captain side. Pilots flying RJ's make about that much at places like Air Wisconsin, Horizon, Comair, or Expressjet. Then again most legacy carriers are paying their newhire pilots like garbage nowadays, CO newhires will make maybe 30k/year even if they are on the 777.
AznCSA4QF744ER From United States of America, joined Oct 2003, 671 posts, RR: 0 Reply 2, posted (5 years 11 months 3 weeks 4 days 20 hours ago) and read 2060 times:
Quoting KAUSpilot (Reply 1): CO newhires will make maybe 30k/year even if they are on the 777.
Co777er From United States of America, joined Jun 2005, 691 posts, RR: 0 Reply 3, posted (5 years 11 months 3 weeks 4 days 18 hours ago) and read 1975 times:
KAUSpilot From United States of America, joined Jan 2002, 1955 posts, RR: 37 Reply 4, posted (5 years 11 months 3 weeks 4 days 18 hours ago) and read 1930 times:
Quoting Co777er (Reply 3): Obviously with some prior 777 training from a previous airline!
Not necessarily....CO newhires can and have been awarded the 777 without prior experience in type. This might make them the lowest paid 777 pilots in the world. Many newhires avoid it because reserve will be indefinite and you will not get to log many takeoffs and landings other than what you do in the simulator; you will be an IRO for the most part. I'm not saying I'd turn down the job though, because the potential to make decent money is there within 5 or 6 years. Unfortunately airlines now subsidize training costs by offering drastically low starting pay and at Continental you don't even get insurance for the first 6 months.
KAUSpilot From United States of America, joined Jan 2002, 1955 posts, RR: 37 Reply 6, posted (5 years 11 months 3 weeks 4 days 17 hours ago) and read 1869 times:
No. Visit airlinepilotcentral.com and all the pay statistics are available for viewing. Multiply hourly rates x 1000 to get approxmiate annual salaries.
Quoting LAXspotter (Reply 5): And youre saying that RJ Pilots make more than Continental Mainline pilots?
Some RJ pilots make more than some Mainline pilots, but obviously not when you compare seat to seat with equal seniority. A 10 year RJ captain makes a lot more than a newhire mainline FO in most cases. But if you compare a 10 year mainline captain to a 10 year RJ captain the mainline pilot will make about double. If someone goes from being a regional captain to, say, a continental FO it will take them 2 or 3 years to equal what they were making at the regional in most cases.
ChicagoFlyer From United States of America, joined Jan 2006, 247 posts, RR: 0 Reply 7, posted (5 years 11 months 3 weeks 4 days 4 hours ago) and read 1559 times:
Quoting KAUSpilot (Reply 6): Multiply hourly rates x 1000 to get approxmiate annual salaries.
I guess my question was more about whether pilots actually get paid salary or any salaries quoted are annualized hourly numbers? And 1000 hours, isn't it a contractual maximum? I'd imagine most pilots (at least at legacy airlines) do not come close to flying that many hours...
Pgtravel From United States of America, joined Oct 2005, 445 posts, RR: 3 Reply 8, posted (5 years 11 months 3 weeks 4 days 2 hours ago) and read 1411 times:
Quoting ChicagoFlyer (Reply 7): I guess my question was more about whether pilots actually get paid salary or any salaries quoted are annualized hourly numbers?
They actually get paid a salary. I posted an interview on my blog here (click to read the whole thing) with their SVP of Planning and Development and asked him exactly that question. Here's the excerpt pertaining to this issue:
Quote:
Cranky: The annual salary for the front line is a really interesting concept. How does that work? Is there a baseline number of hours they fly and then if they go over they get paid overtime?
Josh: Annual salaries work for crews when paired with a line-allocation concept called fair assignment. Essentially lines are assigned by computer to employees in order to maximize equality. Employees have some ability to express preferences. So the number of hours a given crew will fly in a month can vary, but we guarantee them a salary number regardless. In our system there’s no concept of overtime or baseline hours. Similarly, there’s no seniority system (since there’s no bidding for lines).
KAUSpilot From United States of America, joined Jan 2002, 1955 posts, RR: 37 Reply 9, posted (5 years 11 months 3 weeks 4 days 2 hours ago) and read 1411 times:
Quoting ChicagoFlyer (Reply 7): I guess my question was more about whether pilots actually get paid salary or any salaries quoted are annualized hourly numbers? And 1000 hours, isn't it a contractual maximum? I'd imagine most pilots (at least at legacy airlines) do not come close to flying that many hours...
It depends on the airline. Most pay hourly rates, with a minimum amount "guaranteed" regardless of actual hours flown (usually 70-80 hours of pay per month are guaranteed). Most schedules will have pilots at least flying enough hours to "break guarantee" othrewise the airline would be paying pilots for hours they did not fly. Some airlines, like Maxjet apparantly, pay a straight monthly salary, but this method is more popular with corporate and fractional operators.
1000 hours is not a contractual maximum, it's a federally mandated maximum. Pilots of airliners with more than 19 seats are also not allowed to fly more than 100 hours in a month, 30 hours in a week, or be scheudled to fly more than 8 hours in a day. Contractual maximums often dictate a lower "average" that schedules must be built to. You are right, most pilots do not fly close to 1000 hours annually at legacy airlines, but when you take into account things like vacation pay, soft time, training pay, per diem, etc, multiplying the hourly rate x 1000 still gets you in the ballpark.
SkyexRamper From , joined Dec 1969, posts, RR: Reply 10, posted (5 years 11 months 3 weeks 3 days 4 hours ago) and read 1163 times:
They are probably all salaried because they don't have a lot of flying going on. Their crews can only go one direction before having to rest. Only can do 8hr on duty (in the air) days. Which seems like a good deal, working one flight then rest for 18-24hrs.
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