Will pilot pay ever go back up?
06-06-2016 | 07:24 PM
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Will pilot pay ever go back up?
With the track the airlines are currently on, is it possible that the airlines will start paying their pilots like they used to in the golden days. With the lack of willing pilots, the airlines will eventually run out and they will have no other choice than to raise pilot pay and in turn raise airline ticket fares. Is this a possibility? Or is the airline career a hopeless death spiral that is soon to be taken over by computers? I really hope all this time and effort I've put in my flight training and education pays off one day. Any thoughts?
06-07-2016 | 05:14 AM
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In theory, yes, but they will try everything in their power to keep salaries minimal. Namely, they're already conjuring up direct hire programs and more flow through agreements. They could raise the mandatory retirement age, again, but it'd only be a bandaid and I don't think you'd see many wanting to work past 65 anyway. Heck, I don't want to work past 60.
Ticket prices could stand to go up. Even with all the associated new fees airlines have implemented over the past 10 years, the average roundtrip fare when adjusted for inflation has fell hundreds of bucks since the 70's.
Flying isn't luxury anymore like it was in the "Golden Days". Despite the unmatched convenience, people treat air travel as an entitlement now; no different than hopping on a bus.
Ticket prices could stand to go up. Even with all the associated new fees airlines have implemented over the past 10 years, the average roundtrip fare when adjusted for inflation has fell hundreds of bucks since the 70's.
Flying isn't luxury anymore like it was in the "Golden Days". Despite the unmatched convenience, people treat air travel as an entitlement now; no different than hopping on a bus.
06-07-2016 | 10:08 AM
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It will never be the golden years of a "Cadillac a month", but few know of those days, so make of it what you will. It will always be a upper middle class lifestyle. The golden years were when airline captains dated Hollywood stars, lived in Greenwich, Ct or LaJolla, CA and drove fancy cars. Those days are gone.
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06-07-2016 | 08:37 PM
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Interviewer: HAL, You have an enormous responsibility on this mission, in many ways perhaps the greatest responsibility of any single mission element. You're the brain and central nervous system of the ship, and your responsibilities include watching over the men in hibernation.
HAL: Let me put it this way, Mr. Amor. The 9000 series is the most reliable computer ever made. No 9000 computer has ever made a mistake or distorted information. We are all, by any practical definition of the words, foolproof and incapable of error.
HAL: Let me put it this way, Mr. Amor. The 9000 series is the most reliable computer ever made. No 9000 computer has ever made a mistake or distorted information. We are all, by any practical definition of the words, foolproof and incapable of error.
06-08-2016 | 09:44 AM
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(1) Deregulation in 1978. That has a been a game-changer for an airline career. While a pilot can still have a "good" career, the super-lucrative days for us are probably over. See the effects of deregulation in #2.
(2) Since deregulation, airlines have had to compete for customers and run their business more efficiently. No longer do we have protected route authority and government subsidies granted through the Civil Aeronautics Board. Even today, Low Cost Carriers continue to have an impact on the marketplace. The glamour days are over. In the old days, airline travel was reserved more to the wealthy and famous. Today, airline travel is available to the masses at the lowest cost per mile in history, adjusted for inflation. Combined with deregulation is the effect of information through the internet to easily compare ticket prices. Price is now king; I call it the "Walmarting" of the industry. Brand loyalty is hard to find and amenities are no longer a primary consideration. These effects have caused the airlines to "unbundle" their product to meet consumer demand, leading to paying for everything "a-la-carte" from baggage fees to ticket change fees to food. It's all being driven by the lowest common denominator, the budget-conscious and likely infrequent coach traveler who is extremely price-sensitive. Even though the industry is very profitable now, making money has become even more difficult for airline management than it was 50 years ago. If we were paid like airline pilots were paid in the 1960's, the average pilot would be making literally hundreds of thousands of dollars more per year in salary, adjusted for inflation. Even with the profitability of the industry today, those wages are not sustainable, even if we were able to lower executive compensation which is extremely unlikely.
(3) The expectations for executive compensation have changed tremendously in the past several decades. I despise it, but it is what it is. Today, executives in most industries are paid many times more than their average employee than they used to be. Boards of Directors are sensitive to that and claim they "have" to pay to keep their leadership in place. So the huge salaries, bonuses, stock options, and "golden parachutes" to even those executives who fail or don't complete their term seem to be here to stay. That is another reason that there is never going to be enough "gravy" to go around to pay us like we were paid 50 years ago.
Still, there are plenty of reasons to pursue a piloting career. While not "AS" lucrative as it used to be, we are still paid well-above average wages to do a job that most of us tremendously enjoy.
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