Originally Posted by
pagey
I don't think it's close to that.
The sim is the major cost here. I don't know what the actual sim cost is, but lets just say its 1k/hour for grins.
I'm going to do some really backwoods math so bear with me here. I'll try to stay on the expensive side so we stay conservative.
Lets say 8 hours a year in the sim. 8k. We'll cut that in half since you'll have a partner in there with you. So there's 4k a year.
2, maybe 3 nights in a hotel at 150/night. 450/year.
Instructor for 8 hours divided by 2 for the partner again at 150/hour. 600/year.
Pilot hourly rate 100/hr for 8 hours. 800/year
perdiem at 2/hour for 8 hours. 16/year.
Grand Total. $5416/year.
Now that is at sim time being 1k per hour. I'd be willing to bet the actual cost for an airline to run the sim is less than that, especially if the own the sim themselves.
This is pure speculation of course and I could be not even close to the ballpark.
Done twice a year is $10,832 per pilot.
And don't forget the cost to keep the IP current (unless you are wet leasing the sim: higher hourly rate).
Also the ancillary costs of the pilot: drug testing, background checks, etc.
But let's stick with your 5k number:
Say the "average" hourly rate for a pilot is $70 (CA and FOs blended). 75 hours per month is pretty standard guarantee and totals 900 hours per year. IF the company were to pay 150% for every hour over 75, how man hours would that $5400 pay for? 155. That is the extra cost of overtime is $35/hour, $5400/35= 155. If the company only under staffs FOs, it might get twice that many hours. So, for the cost of training one part time FO, the company can drive three current FOs to 1000 hours. (Or in the case of some companies, offer a $5k hiring bonus and get a full time FO.) Where is the benefit to the company?