Originally Posted by
sailingfun
Actually if it came out that SWA pay is not enough I did not explain myself correctly. What I am saying is that achieving SWA pilots costs is not enough. No matter what the forum legends are on SW when we are before the NMB the actual numbers will be used. If we offered the company SWA pilot costs verses are 2 man pilot costs the company would sign that minute. In the last reported year SWA pilots average 166,000 in pay. Delta pilots average 142,000 in pay. Add in the 5 percent difference in DC money and the numbers are not that far apart.
What I put in my survey is that I would like to see us attempt to achieve SWA pilot pay rates on the MD88 with the rest of the fleets adjusted accordingly. That will put our actual block hour pilot costs quite a bit above SW. I also wanted significant raises each year of the contract in addition to the upfront raise.
Having asked quite a few pilots what they put down as a acceptable raise I can tell you that out of around 10 guys I was on the high side. Only 1 asked for more then I did in the survey. Not really a valid sample but I will bet money the average pilot in the survey fell in the 15 to 20 percent raise category.
Sorry to butt into the Delta thread, but I'll make it quick. The $166,000 average salary that keeps getting quoted here is incorrect. The MIT website has made a gross error in their calculations. If you look at 2009, it says that average SWA pilot pay was $176,000 and dropped to $166,000 in 2010. That is simply not correct.
There seems to be an error in the total number of pilots at SWA. Their charts show a sudden jump of 5.2 crews per aircraft to 5.9 from 2009 to 2010. That number is not correct. MIT shows that SWA hired around 800 pilots in 2010, making their calculations wildly inaccurate. Actual number of pilots hired in 2010 was zero.
If you compare the total cockpit cost per block hour for narrowbody equipment, SWA cockpit cost per hour rose from $630 to $691. SWA's scheduling practices and contract did not change appreciably in 2010 other than a pay rate increase. To compare, Delta currently shows $552 total cost per hour for 2010.
Anyway, the $166,000 average salary figure is not correct. If you use the correct number of pilots, the average SWA salary is actually well above $186,000 per year. My past history of Delta bashing aside, that is the real info.
http://web.mit.edu/airlinedata/www/2...0EQUIPMENT.htm