Major Vs. Cargo? What's the real deal?
 

Major Vs. Cargo? What's the real deal?

I've been trying to figure out whether I want to aim my career at Cargo, or a Major airline. The two Cargo Airlines I've looked at are USP, and FedEx. The Majors I've looked at are Air Transat, Air Canada, and WestJet. Can any of you give me some insight into which path would be better...wheather it be due to pay, benefits, hours and so on? What's the deal?

Always,

Dreamer

You may want to complete some of your training first. You may decide it's not for you. It's good to look ahead, but 10+ years ahead is a little much.

Ditto what Slice said. It's nice to look ahead but that far ahead the entire thing will change anyway. Who knows what the industry will be doing in 10 years. Dream a little but take care of first things first.

Just posted this on another thread. Limited view on finances and stabilty, FWIW. Good luck.
OTH, I specifically passed on a few airlines because I looked at flying as a business proposition. At COEX coming out of the mil, learned that CO/COEX owned but two handfuls of the more than 300+ planes. Also, the buildings leased, the tugs and other ground eqipment leased. Realized they had almost no assets, charged less for their product than expenses. Was hired while they were in bankruptcy. Even my 3 brain cells figured out that Fedex/UPS made alot of money, skimped on everything to move boxes (including usually short on pilots). Owned almost everything, charged for their product to include a profit. I would give ourselves very good odds that UPS/Fedex etc will be around till we retire. BTW, if it goes on an airplane at UPS, it is because no other mode of transportation will make service. An awful lot of air volume goes by truck. That is pretty good furlough protection.

dreamer...

you have a lot of questions. Sounds like you have that flying bug pretty good. But you might be doing a few things out of order. Priorities is the first word that comes to my mind.

It is ok to wonder and dream who you want to fly for, and what you are going to do on those long flights in cruise and what kind of jet you want to be captain on... but you have a long road of flight training before any of that happens.

Most people on here will tell you a similar story, but when I did my private license I wanted to go into the Air Force. Then I changed that to wanted to fly corporate jets during my instrument rating. Then I wanted to fly cargo for FedEx before I got my commercial and then major airlines, and then cargo for UPS then corporate again and back and fourth about 30 more times.

The company you will want to fly for will change just as fast as this industry changes. Get your flight training done first. Become a flight instructor if you can. Learn a little, and then you can start flying people and boxes and boxes with people in them if you can find one of those companies...

10 years ago I was in the military and a lot of my friends were getting out and going into the civilian flying (I stayed in). The Majors were paying their pilots wagon loads of money each month, and they even were getting signing bonuses of new cars and gold. Life was great at the top of the will fly for food chain. The cargo guys were the ones that would finish other people's drinks at the bar. They were mostly Vietnam vets with 50,000 hours flying rice around the world.

Ask someone to tell you what it is like now and you would see a much different picture of the flying business. The barrel has turned and the Majors are now the ones lurking in bars for unfinished drinks...

Guessing at what the future will be like in 10 years is a fun game, but nothing to bet on. The secret of life, if you are searching, is to find something you like and find a way to do that for a living. Don't try and guess what something is going to be like 10 years from now, figure out what you like now and do it. As your likes change, you can adapt. If not, at least you have something to talk about...

P.S. If I offended any old cargo or passenger pilots, please forgive me. I am just trying to get some weekends off...

Thanks a Million for the advice, Toejam. I starting to see that I can always count on you for an awesome reply. I know it's weird to look so far into the future...For now I'm just going to learn as much as I can, follow my passions...and take it from there.

Always,

Dreamer

Another thanks also, to everyone who has answered this tread. I really appreciate you sharing some of your personal stories.

Always,

Dreamer