drewtei

What exactly is a training contract?

If for example a regional (I'm making the numbers up here) has a two year, $11,000 training contract, what does that mean? Do you make 11k in two years...that seems really low?

Twin Wasp

Ah, no. A training contract, sometimes called a training bond, means you will pay the company X amount for your your training if you quit before the contract is up. They usually pro-rate them. To make the math easier, say it is a 12,000 dollar 2 year contract. The amount you would owe would drop 500 per month till after working there 2 years you could quit for free.

Javok

How common is this sort of thing in the 121 world?

rickair7777

Bottom-feeder regionals will require one, otherwise their pilots will bail to other regionals after they get a few hundred turbine hours.

Cubdriver

If you look at it from the employers perspective, the employers are investing a fair number of thousands of dollars into each new recruit to fly their airplanes, and they reasonably cannot have those people saying "that was fun, bye" before they make any money for the airline as pilots. The contract gives the company a way to recoup their investment in pilot training. As far as I know, the contracts are enforced by the civil courts- although I do not have any references.

rickair7777

The contracts generally have weak enforcement prospects, and it varies by state. But failure to pay would allow them to damage your credit which is often enough incentive. Fighting it in court could cost more than the outstanding balance.

Usually where they fall short of enforceability is either state law (not necessarily corporate HQ, could apply at your domicile) or coercion. If they don't notify you in writing when they make the job offer, but then require you to sign a contract on the day you start work you can argue that since you had already quit your previous job you had no choice but to sign.

If you have any concerns about training contracts or are thinking of breaking one, talk to a labor lawyer.

gcpilot

i have seen a lot of them in Asian LCCs during my reading through this forum.

Ogie Ogilthorpe

The biggest of all of these is of course the U.S. Air Force.

gcpilot

to be clear, they dont take out $500 every month from the salary?

I was looking at the information provided by Air Hongkong on their website and was scared by the 90k training bond for 3 years

BenS

Training contract and salary are two different things. First remove pay entirely from your mind. You'll be paid a certain hourly amount and other things and that will be your income, has nothing to do at all with your training contract.

Previously and until this point in you career, I must assume you've paid for all the training you've received. A private cert cost you $XX,000, instrument, commercial, multi, college, etc. has each cost you money that you had to pay to receive that training. Now welcome to an airline job. Your training will be "free". There will be no taking from your pay, there will be no paying money up front for a new rating or anything. You will receive all the training you need for your new job, $0 from you. Essentially. The catch (and why wouldn't there be a catch to this deal?) is that you must work for a given period of time to make enough money for your company to warrant the free training you've received. In this case, you must work at least two years, and if you do so training will be completely free. Now if after a time you feel inclined to quit, and it has been less than two years (for simplicity, you've worked 12 months of a 24 month contract). Because you did not work enough time with the company, you now owe them what you signed for. Previous people have mentioned pro-rated contracts, I'd say read it and see what it says, because I am under a 15 month, $7,500 contract that is not prorated.

If you have more questions on pro-rated I'd be glad to help, but nonetheless, training contract has nothing to do with pay, will not take money from you at first, nothing at all to do with your income and after you've worked what it asks of you, it'll be as good as if it doesn't exist. The only time you have to worry about a training contract is if you were to quit employment in less time than the contract was written for. In that case you will owe the company a sum in return for the training they had given you. I know I've gone long, but hope it clears the mud a little...