Originally Posted by
Nashmd11
They should. My whole point was, "I feel", we are letting wages World Wide go down the sh*ter. And it needs to be addressed. Or the profession is done. Why isn't this downward spiral happening in other professions? The AMA? Lawyer lobbyist? I just feel flying an A-380 for 10 to 15K a month is crap.
It is a very good point that at a time when there is a very serious worldwide pilot shortage, and yes, worldwide there is, that wages have not gone up. I really can't blame the people who went to a place like Skybus to take $65K a year as an A320 skipper as I don't know what their motive/situation is and it would be wrong to comment without knowing that situation. An off-shore example would be the likes of Jade cargo, who, apparently, are paying to the tune of $5500US base for a 744 freighter skipper (they are not getting many takers so they have 'improved' the contract). Air India is paying $8500 US for a 744 skipper, also not getting many takers, or at least not the people they want. that is FO wages my friends, and they charge the same ticket prices, at least, as the western carriers. With the rest of their cost base the pilot wages should be much higher.
I've mentioned the idea of IFALPA/FAA/CAA working towards making a mandatory minimum experience requirement for part 121 pilots, with the obvious suspects telling me I'm an idiot. Instead, the airplane manufacturers, along with airlines, are pushing for this multi-crew licence, so we can have a bunch of inexperienced 'pilots' with 150 hours total time dragging wages, and frankly safety levels at international airlines way down.
This is just my opinion, but perhaps we don't need quite so many 'ultra low cost' carriers out there, able to exist because they can get us cheap. It's nice that lots of pilots are able to fly big planes, but they shouldn't be taking seriously below average wages just to do it; rock bottom pay is not my idea of 'living the dream'.
I didn't get into this so I could get paid peanuts. I expected $64K a year when I was flying night freight in a Metro III; that was what the job was worth, and probably what I was worth at the time. Heck, the first three years of my career in the sub arctic consisted of a pay check between $1500 and $2500 per month, along with scaring the crap out of myself daily.
Management consistently fails to understand what having experience in the flight deck means for overall costs, i.e.: fuel/engine savings. Ours is starting to get a bit too happy with the savings we, as a pilot group, have achieved. Minimum fuel restrictions are there so the weakest link doesn't get anyone hurt trying to save the company a couple bucks. And, one go around due to an unstable approach below the safety gate pretty much negates an entire year of saving's doing low drag approaches.
NZALPA will be dealing with the topic of the multi-crew licence directly at this years symposium. I hope that we can get thing's together enough to put a proposal out there to IFALPA, as that is the point as far as I read in the 'remit'. The US regionals have ridiculous hiring minimums for their regional jet operators. Lot's of good guys and gals out there flying C402's and the like who can fill those seats with experience, it would just take paying them properly. But it won't happen unless we put our collective foot down. 300 hours in the right seat of an RJ? I don't know.
None the less, I so understand that SQ pay has to be looked at as whole and I know it's pretty good, and I understand that they are extremely consistent with the incentive pay. But I think nashmd11 is making the correct point about eroding wages and is truly concerned about it, as we all should be. He had to read between the lines of the original post, as should people making comment on his reply.
Dentists keep wages up by limiting the number of professionals in their industry. Want a dentist, you have to wait, or pay, and it should be no different for our industry. I booked a ticket from LAX to YEG with Air Canada the other day and it was $90 each way. Great for me, bad for us as a whole. They are not making money, nor are many of the big carriers. They are a little too happy about not losing as much than last year I think. 84% break even load factor? A little downturn in the industry, inevitable really, and there they go back into chapter 11. . .again.
But I digress and this rant is no doubt boring those who are still reading; I thank you for your persistence. Let's all just at least try to keep in mind the long term effect of taking ridiculous pay just to get into a jet. The pay at SQ is great, but that isn't the same for many other carriers that mostly use contract pilots.