Originally Posted by Typhoonpilot

Let's just take these one at a time:

Scrimping on pilot pay:

EK, EY, and QR all start pilots at close to $100,000/year in salary. They also provide housing, medical, tuition assistance, etc that all combine to a tremendous benefit package. For American citizens the tax advanage using the foreign earned income exclusion means that a first officer salary is almost 100% tax free. Captains ( upgrade occuring at roughly the 5 year point ) make around $150,000-175,000 plus the previously mentioned benefits. Their effective tax rate after the foreign earned income exclusion is between 10 and 20%. Senior captains make over $200,000 year and pay 10 to 20% tax. Meaning their take home is over $160,000/year. I'd hardly call that scrimping.

Super long duty days:

EK and EY operate under the UAE GCAA regulations which are very similar to the UK CAP 371 rules. The longest allowable duty day for a 2 pilot crew is 14 hours and that only if you start work between 0800 and 1300 and fly only one leg. The maximum duty day reduces with each subsequent leg flown. So at that same start time 4 legs would mean a max duty day of 11:45. How's that compare to the 16 hour six sector days in the USA?

The right to fly between two U.S. cities:

No, not passenger airlines.

Emirates doesn't pay pilots for their time on long-haul (multiple crew) flights unless they are actually in the seat:

False, Emirates pilots are paid 100% of their hourly pay for the total flight time whether they are in the flight deck or in the bunk. 32 hour 4 day trips are the norm for U.S. flights.

Again, you are barking up the wrong tree. I've operated under the U.S. FARs and under other foreign regs. The EK regs are far and away the best in terms of flight time limitations and fatigue management. Ever operated FAR 121 Supplemental? It can't get any worse than that, believe me.



Typhoonpilot