No, no… The size is great. Detail's galore in the pink airplane picture with the crew!! :D

Guys,

I'm a brazilian, don't work for Azul, but it's easy to figure out which airline I fly for down here (First Officer).

What I can tell you is that Azul's paycheck is a total shame.

In a regular month (with some night/weekend flights) I'll probably make as much as an EMB195 Captain... Around 10K net (I heard they make something around 12K). A regular line captain at Gol, Tam and Avianca easily makes 17K a month.

Not to say that there's no warm food for the crew.., That they are the ones trying slow down our new regulations and the list goes on and on. Many went there believing the company was going to be the new Varig, and many others went there because the requirements were low (250...500hrs and you're good to fly the Embraer).

We thought that Mr Neeleman was going to raise the bar in the aviation business here in Brazil. We were sooooo naive !

About the cost of living here, I just can't believe someone can provide a family with a salary under 15K in a city like Sao Paulo or any other major capital in this country. Just to give you an idea, my family recently bought an apartment nearby Congonhas Airport, 64 m2, R$550K. Just crazy ! Forget about going out to a reasonably good restaurant and spending less than R$120 per person.

We're ****ed, that's the easiest way to sum how things are here. All of the above together with the escalating violence is the reason why many brazilian pilots are leaving to the middle east & china. I'm not ready for this move, but I'm getting prepared for the worst.

Sometimes, when looking at a Delta, United or American acft, I think to myself: those guys probably don't have a clue of how lucky they are !!!

I know the aviation market in the US isn't easy, but at least you guys still have the chance to fly for a major airline.

Cheers !!!

I've heard, but have not verified, that Azul's A330 drivers make less than JetBlue E190 pilots here in the states. And while Neeleman has many redeeming qualities, love for pilots is not one of them. He was quite forthright during his time at JetBlue about viewing us as overpaid technicians, and although he would be respectful to you as a human being he had very little respect for the profession. Just food for thought when AZUL pay is discussed.

I'm not sure about this, but the word around is that this is the lowest A330 salary in the world.

And I also heard that a few Embraer TRIs refused to go to the A330, as they would lose money becoming regular captains and having to change their home base (from RIO to VCP).

I don't think I have to stress this, but all the salaries I posted above are, obviously, in Reais.

So: R$12K in today's exchange rate would be US$3K. That's pretty much what an Embraer captain makes a month here !

Thanks for validating what I have been saying for a few years now. The ALPA pilots here get all up in arms over Europeans who are only paid $14,000/month to fly a widebody, yet when I point out a large threat lies to the south where pilots and other employees are making much much less, it's crickets.



TP

SFPerformance,

Welcome to the APC forum. It's great to get your participation. Hoping that there is improved conditions for all in Brazil. I miss flying down there quite a bit (north American flying for one of the majors), but really don't want to return.

Is there a similar forum in Portuguese?

Hey 767 ! Thanks for your kind words, buddy...

To tell you the truth, I believe that things have improved during the last 5 years or so.

There were some investments in our major airports, and our ATCOs management got better (even though their working tools are far away from ideal which results in the countless holds, vectors and speed reductions seen daily in Brasilia, Sao Paolo and Rio Terminals).

I can't say that our navigation aids are being updated and that new technologies are being added to the whole system, but some issues from the recent past are now fixed... That's a start, right ?

This country is huge, with lots of potential, but it's too bad that our politicians are only worried about their own pockets ! Probably this is a cultural thing, that started at our colonization, and that will never change !

I'm really sorry your experience here wasn't the best, but I gotta say that I wouldn't expect anything different with our current political environment.

There's a nice aviation Brazilian aviation forum called ContatoRadar. Check it out: Fórum Contato Radar

All the best ! :)

"sorry your experience here wasn't the best"

I could have been more clear. I like Sao Paulo quite alot. Also like Rio, but prefer Sao Paulo. it was just the flying there at night (all night), and then returning again at night. Can only do that sort of work for so long.

Have also flown there as passenger on a few different carriers - always very professional.

ATC treated us very fairly, and seemed competent.

Hello Guys

I'm also Brazilian buy flying in the U.S. right now.

Azul hired a lot of fresh guys out of flight school with 250hours. They where happy just to be on the right seat of a shinny jet and still live with their parents.

The payment is waaaay below the industry standards, sometimes a flight instructor flying multi-engine was able to make way more money than those guys.

On the other hand, guys flying in Gol, Avianca and TAM make a lot of money and probably have a better QOL than anyone in the U.S. majors if they chose to live in an expensive place.

If you guys have more questions please just ask