Riverside

What did the call in say about hiring on the 76?

Lowlevel

Uggghhhh, sounds like a regional

gollum

Latest vacancy bid was for 10 more captains and 10 first officers.

Riverside

Then what's FedEx and UPS flying then?

gumpscheck

It doesn’t matter what FedEx or UPS flies. Those two companies pay their pilots for their services and treat them with respect. In the ACMI world you are barely paid and treated like crap.

Lockheed

I know that's the jaded view, and rightly so, from an abex guy

It doesn't apply to all acmi - certainly not k4

freighthound

Let’s face the facts, it doesn’t matter if you fly the 767,737 or 757 for Kalitta, Atlas, ABX, ATI, Southern or even Kalitta Charters II, within either the DHL or Amazon systems, you are terribly underpaid especially when you included retirement contributions. At each of these airlines when flying the mentioned equipment you only get paid min guarantee unless you fly on days off. Talking about hourly rate at these carriers in this equipment is irrelevant. It is gross pay that matters, min guarantee times hourly rate. Add to that the retirement piece and that is your true compensation. When you do this calculation you can plainly see that even the best of these carriers is not only light years behind UPS and FED EX, who do the same type of flying, any major, but also most of the Nationals Allegiant, Jet Blue, Spirit etc. The latter group average much higher than min guarantee every month without working extra days. If you like flying for your ACMI carrier great. It’s good to enjoy working for your employer. Each of these carriers treat their employees differently. If you fly larger equipment, 747 or 777 this post does not apply. But for those flying the light twins it does. Multiplying your pay rate by 60, 61, 64, 65 or 68 hours is much different than multiplying it by 75-85 hours. Add to that the fact the ACMI carriers only have 401K matches of around 6 %, with caps that limit even that, while the other carriers have between 12 and 15% 401k matches/DC plans and some still have pension plans. Let’s be honest to those looking around, coming to an ACMI carrier and flying the smaller equipment will leave you well behind in career earnings.

Lockheed

you paint with a very wide brush

freighthound

If there is something that is factually incorrect based on the arena of flying I am discussing please correct me. The purpose of my post is to point out the realities to prospective pilots as to the realities of flying inside the domestic express network at an ACMI in the smaller aircraft. Factual corrections are appreciated by all.

maxjet

Your post is not at all factual and not at all original. How many time has your argument been stated by others?

How many applications does UPS and FedEx have? How many will they hire? That leaves a lot of pilots not being selected.

I had a very good year last year and made 419,000. Was that not enough? If I was to gauge my career net worth on your “factual” arguments I would just quit because they didn’t establish a retirement fund for me?

It becomes frustrating when you and others continually compare K4 to Brown and Purple. The only time I do B&P work is during CNET and I have to tell you, it is freaking boring. I go to work, have a great time with great crews and go home happy. I will very much miss this when I retire a year from today.