SK To Hire Chinese Attendants

EuroBonus · Wed Jan 11, 2006 7:48 am

SK is planning to hire 35 Chinese flight attendants from March 1st. They will receive an approximate wage of DKK 10,000 (1,588 USD) including uniforms and hotel. They are not belonging to an union according the newspaper. Danish unions are very upset right now and they threat SK with strikes if SK don't make a new agreement with the Chinese staff and give them a higher wage following Danish standards. A Danish flight attendant receive approximately DKK 50,000 (7,936 USD) excluding uniforms and hotels according Danish newspaper Berlingske Tidende. It seems SK is suffering with the high wages (as always). I won't be surprised if SK is planning to move more of their activities to Asia to save costs.

CO7e7 · Wed Jan 11, 2006 8:04 am

Quoting EuroBonus (Thread starter):
I won't be surprised if SK is planning to move more of their activities to Asia to save costs.

Do you mean China ?? Because i know they're losing $10million on their BKK route.

https://www.airliners.net/discussions...general_aviation/read.main/2497656

Lufthansa747 · Wed Jan 11, 2006 8:56 am

Quoting EuroBonus (Thread starter):
A Danish flight attendant receive approximately DKK 50,000 (7,936 USD) excluding uniforms and hotels according Danish newspaper Berlingske Tidende.

Nothing short of ridiculous.

scalebuilder · Wed Jan 11, 2006 9:40 am

Quoting Lufthansa747 (Reply 2):
A Danish flight attendant receive approximately DKK 50,000 (7,936 USD) excluding uniforms and hotels according Danish newspaper Berlingske Tidende.

Nothing short of ridiculous.

Are these figures......per month???

cedarjet · Wed Jan 11, 2006 9:51 am

Annual salary I would guess. Seven thousand dollars a year goes a hell of a long way in Beijing. Airport to city centre taxi ride is about a buck fifty, for instance.

Matt27 · Wed Jan 11, 2006 9:57 am

Quoting EuroBonus (Thread starter):
A Danish flight attendant receive approximately DKK 50,000 (7,936 USD) excluding uniforms and hotels according Danish newspaper Berlingske Tidende

I hardly think any flight attendant at any airline make almost $8.000 a month.

Didn't SAS used to have Japanese FAs on their NRT flights?

scalebuilder · Wed Jan 11, 2006 10:03 am

Quoting Matt27 (Reply 5):
I hardly think any flight attendant at any airline make almost $8.000 a month.

I can't imagine that any FA can get by on $8,000 per year either (living in Scandinavia). I really question these figures.

bjornstrom · Wed Jan 11, 2006 12:19 pm

Remember that Denmark has much higher salaries than Sweden for example - in part because of the social taxes being paid by the employee instead of the employer (which is common in many european countries).

50.000DKr per month seems probable. I understand why SK want to pay 1/5 to the chinese FA's.

Simpilicity · Wed Jan 11, 2006 12:59 pm

QF in todays news are planning on moving a lot to China. No reason thiss doesn't mean low cost Chinese flight attendants as well.

hodja · Wed Jan 11, 2006 2:08 pm

Quoting Scalebuilder (Reply 3):
Are these figures......per month???

Yes, monthly figures. However, according to the article the DKK50.000/month is not the actual salary but the full cost of employing a flight attendant. (including overhead etc)

I seem to recall a danish FA at SK gets about DKK25.000-30.000/month in basic salary.

star_world · Wed Jan 11, 2006 2:13 pm

Quoting Cedarjet (Reply 4):
Annual salary I would guess. Seven thousand dollars a year goes a hell of a long way in Beijing. Airport to city centre taxi ride is about a buck fifty, for instance.

Not even close - Try ten times that amount, somewhere between $12-15. Yes it's cheap in Beijing for many things, but not quite this good Smile

scandinavian · Wed Jan 11, 2006 6:26 pm

I think that its great if they hire some Chinese flight attendants. Why not, its a nice gesture to the Chinese customers. Maybe the service level will be a little bit better with some Chinese attendants?

I wonder if SAS is the last of the bigger European airlines to hire Chinese flight attendants on their routes to China?

CPH757 · Wed Jan 11, 2006 7:15 pm

yeah, 8000US$ is not anywhere an annual salary. That's what minimum waged people earn in three month. But the ammount is the monthly cost of a Scandinavian F/A (uniforms, hotels and so on deducted), not the salary. What does the cost then include? Training etc.?

Again a stupid reaction from the unions. I guess it's the same anywhere, but i Denmark is usually craftsmen union who complain about cheap Polish workers, even though the Danish ones has more than enough work to do. Instead of working, they are sabotaging the legal working Poles. What a great way to earn sympathy. I would welcome the Chinese F/A's everyday, as well as the Polish craftsmen.

It's kind of a paradox. The SK F/A's depends of globalization, if no globalization, less jobs for them. But they won't take the "consequences"...

Orion737 · Wed Jan 11, 2006 7:35 pm

And these Chinese flight attendants to be hired by SAS are all fluent in Norweigian, Danish and Swedish?????

scandinavian · Wed Jan 11, 2006 7:38 pm

Quoting CPH757 (Reply 12):
It's kind of a paradox. The SK F/A's depends of globalization, if no globalization, less jobs for them. But they won't take the "consequences"...

I agree, very well said! Smile

TheSonntag · Wed Jan 11, 2006 7:48 pm

Quoting Lufthansa747 (Reply 2):
Nothing short of ridiculous.

With all respect, did you ever work in Denmark? I did, and minimum (!) wage for people over 18 is 90 kr plus 12,5% holiday money, that is 12EUR per hour.

Taxation is extreme in Denmark. You have a free amount of around 5000EUR which are only charged with 8%, for the rest, taxation depends between 38% and more than 60%, giving an average taxation level of around 50-60% of the income.

Add 25% VAT, 180% luxury tax on cars (= 1 VW Golf costs minimun 50000EUR) and the average pricing level, and you see the need for high wages.

In Denmark the rule applies, fair payment for fair work. The move by SAS is nothing more than a scandal.

747400F · Wed Jan 11, 2006 7:53 pm

Quoting TheSonntag (Reply 15):
The move by SAS is nothing more than a scandal.

The only scandal is that SAS didn't hire Chinese staff long ago.
These cabin attandents are employed by a chinese company that hires them to SAS, nothing illegal what so ever. And being employed in China they should naturally be paid China wages.

They only spend one night in Denmark between flights so they will not pay danish tax etc.

Quoting Orion737 (Reply 13):
And these Chinese flight attendants to be hired by SAS are all fluent in Norweigian, Danish and Swedish?????

Why on earth should they be? They are there to service the Chinese speaking custumers in Chinese futher that that they speak english - what is the big problem. The majority of passengers on these flights CPH-PEk and CPH-PVG do not speak either of the Scandinavian languages.

Lufthansa747 · Wed Jan 11, 2006 9:13 pm

Quoting TheSonntag (Reply 15):
With all respect, did you ever work in Denmark? I did, and minimum (!) wage for people over 18 is 90 kr plus 12,5% holiday money, that is 12EUR per hour.

No.

I'm from Finland originally, and if for example a teacher in a college earns almost 50% less than a SK f/a and also Finland has very high taxation, I call that figure ridiculous.

7LBAC111 · Thu Jan 12, 2006 2:11 am

Quoting Orion737 (Reply 13):
And these Chinese flight attendants to be hired by SAS are all fluent in Norweigian, Danish and Swedish?????

And this matters why??

Concorde001 · Thu Jan 12, 2006 2:21 am

I know alot of airlines employ staff from markets they sere, for example India.
Does anyone know roughtly how much BA and VS pay their Indian cabin crew?

Maersk737 · Thu Jan 12, 2006 2:36 am

Well the usual stuff Smile

It's alright for me to have high income...... But it's a scandal if other people earn as much as me, they really do not deserve it Wink

Cheers

Peter

scalebuilder · Thu Jan 12, 2006 7:57 am

Quoting 747400F (Reply 16):
The only scandal is that SAS didn't hire Chinese staff long ago.

I am surprised too that this comes so late in the game. It is very likely the unions that have prevented this move, even though it only makes sense for SAS to have Chinese cabin staff present on flights to the far east. Now it has become inevitable because of the dire and emergent need for cost reductions.

Hiring 35 Chinese attendants may not bring any route back to profitability. It is a start though - representing a net saving of 80% over current employee costs.

The problem is still that employing a flight attendant in SAS costs the company almost $8,000 per month. That is simply staggering...almost unbelievable.

globetrekker · Thu Jan 12, 2006 8:07 am

But this is nothing new in the industry. KLM has F/A's in Asia for their flights to PEK, PVG, HKG, TPE, NRT and KIX. In the past they also had for their flights to/from India. The F/A's get a set contract for about 5 years and its not eligible for renewal. 5 years and you're out. They speak the local language and English. Of course they are much cheaper then their Dutch colleagues.

A few monts ago I flew Finnair HEL-PEK and PVG-HEL and on board they had Chinese crew as well. Announcements were made by the purser in Finnish and English and then the Chinese F/A came on and did it in Mandarin.

Globe Trekker

scalebuilder · Thu Jan 12, 2006 8:24 am

Quoting GlobeTrekker (Reply 22):
But this is nothing new in the industry.

I agree that this is as common to the industry as it makes common sense to implement. I think several participants in this discussion, including myself, are surprised why SAS have not planned on hiring foreign cabin crew until now.

KLM may have done so to serve their markets better. I am sure SAS wants to do that too, but is aggressively out there to cut costs as well. I think the cost cutting objective finally made the airline take it's chances with the unions.

andaman · Fri Jan 13, 2006 4:20 am

Quoting GlobeTrekker (Reply 22):

A few monts ago I flew Finnair HEL-PEK and PVG-HEL and on board they had Chinese crew as well. Announcements were made by the purser in Finnish and English and then the Chinese F/A came on and did it in Mandarin.

Globe Trekker

Finnair have had Asian F/As for their Asian flights for years, for safety reasons, for one thing. At first the Finnish labour unions were not pleased, as AY planned to hire CHEAPER short term labour force from Asia. Haven't heard of any troubles lately.

sk909 · Fri Jan 13, 2006 4:35 am

Quoting EuroBonus (Thread starter):
A Danish flight attendant receive approximately DKK 50,000 (7,936 USD) excluding uniforms and hotels according

Get serious... My mother worked for SK for 36 years as a C/A. Just ended her career 2 years ago, and that is nothing short of a lie. Their wage is less than half of that. A senior C/A might get something near, 48000 and thats including pension, uniforms, per diem, basis salary, etc.

scalebuilder · Fri Jan 13, 2006 12:09 pm

Quoting Sk909 (Reply 25):
Get serious... My mother worked for SK for 36 years as a C/A. Just ended her career 2 years ago, and that is nothing short of a lie. Their wage is less than half of that. A senior C/A might get something near, 48000 and thats including pension, uniforms, per diem, basis salary, etc.

Berlingske Tidende is from what I have found out a reliable and credible newspaper. Can't imagine that they quote financial data that is too far from reality. I'm not sure if this is average or of some other measure. Should it be average, it seems to fall north of what you quote as the "ultimate high" based on your personal knowledge.

You're not that much lower though. Based on the newspaper quote, an SAS FA makes a total annual compensation of approximately $96,000 per year. A senior FA according to your quote comes in $5,000 shy at $91,000 per year. You claim your mother made about half of that at the age of retirement. I have no knowledge of where she was employed in the SAS organization, but I do think that compensation figures quoted by Eurobonus relate to those of SAS International.

Anyone out there with additional knowledge on how these compensation figures compare to other airlines in Europe or in the USA?

globetrekker · Fri Jan 13, 2006 5:10 pm

Quoting Andaman (Reply 24):
Finnair have had Asian F/As for their Asian flights for years, for safety reasons, for one thing. At first the Finnish labour unions were not pleased, as AY planned to hire CHEAPER short term labour force from Asia. Haven't heard of any troubles lately.

Thanks for the info, Andaman. Does anyone know if any other European airlines employs Asian crews like KLM and Finnair?

Globe Trekker

sk909 · Fri Jan 13, 2006 7:28 pm

Quoting Scalebuilder (Reply 26):
senior FA according to your quote comes in $5,000 shy at $91,000 per year. You claim your mother made about half of that at the age of retirement

Well I might have explained myself wrong. But, when my mother retired 2 years ago she made approx. DKK 48.000, a month, and she was a senior F/A, with 36 years of seniority.
The average starting salary for SK F/A is DKK 16.000 - 17000 plus uniform, pension and per diem. Now I there is a long way from that to the DKK 50.000 a month. So DKK 50.000 as an average salary? No, I can't se that.

Quoting Scalebuilder (Reply 26):
Berlingske Tidende is from what I have found out a reliable and credible newspaper

It is a reliable news paper. But I don't know where they get the numbers from.

scalebuilder · Sat Jan 14, 2006 11:35 am

Quoting SK909 (Reply 28):
Now I there is a long way from that to the DKK 50.000 a month. So DKK 50.000 as an average salary? No, I can't se that.

There's got to be a problem with highly compensated cabin staff on SAS long haul flights. Mr. Lindegaard simply would not have made such a big fuss about this unless he saw the opportunity for needed concessions from the unions. I suspect that compensation within this sector runs much higher than the average within SAS.

moparman · Sat Jan 14, 2006 1:19 pm

Quoting EuroBonus (Thread starter):
A Danish flight attendant receive approximately DKK 50,000 (7,936 USD) excluding uniforms and hotels

If this is per month... SHIT!! I'm quitting my job at the hospital to become a flight attendent with them.

747400F · Sat Jan 14, 2006 6:16 pm

The 50000 kr is the average cost to the company ie: pay, holiday payment (12,5% of salary) social contributions, per diem, uniform, transfer on ground (and between scandinavian airports as swedish crew get transported to CPH to start flights there with full pay and in otherwise sellable seats, HOTAC, insurance etc)

mika · Sat Jan 14, 2006 7:54 pm

Quoting EuroBonus (Thread starter):
A Danish flight attendant receive approximately DKK 50,000 (7,936 USD) excluding uniforms and hotels according Danish newspaper Berlingske Tidende

Holy crap! Where do i sign up?! Smile

Seriously, by any standards these figures are too optimstic if they are supposed to show the actual salary of a SK FA.

Quoting Bjornstrom (Reply 7):
Remember that Denmark has much higher salaries than Sweden for example - in part because of the social taxes being paid by the employee instead of the employer (which is common in many european countries).

50.000DKr per month seems probable. I understand why SK want to pay 1/5 to the chinese FA's.

Still that figure seems way improbable.

Quoting Hodja (Reply 9):
Yes, monthly figures. However, according to the article the DKK50.000/month is not the actual salary but the full cost of employing a flight attendant. (including overhead etc)

I seem to recall a danish FA at SK gets about DKK25.000-30.000/month in basic salary.

Here we go, this sounds more like it.

Quoting Orion737 (Reply 13):
And these Chinese flight attendants to be hired by SAS are all fluent in Norweigian, Danish and Swedish?????

I'm curious about this aswell, i always thought that cabin crew of an airline was required to know the national language of the airline in order to serve their passengers best. But seeing as these chinese FA's will be working only the asia flights i can see this happening, if there's Scandinavian FA's onboard the flight aswell. At first i was abit surprised to hear all this since i made the assumption that the chinese FA's would be working intra European flights aswell. Now THAT would have been a reason for astonishment Smile

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