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This just doesn't fly: Some airline pilots barely make living wage - NBC News.com

This just doesn't fly: Some airline pilots barely make living wage
Dennis Schaal Skift.com

2 hours ago

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SkyWest
St. George, Utah-based SkyWest Arilines is well-regarded by pilots, with pay ranging from $22 per hour for turboprop first officers to pilots maxing out at $112 per hour for the regional airline's largest aircraft.
You really have to love what you do, or be exceedingly patient, to consider becoming a regional airline pilot.

Aviation consultant Kit Darby says regional airline co-pilots and pilots, in the lower ranks at least, don’t make a living wage.

In fact, the mechanic at your local gas station, or even the taxi driver who drives along the streets of your town, sometimes taking trips of a longer duration than regional flights, may be pulling down more cash per hour than the bottom rungs of first officers, i.e. co-pilots, at regional airlines.

Most view their service on regional airlines as an apprenticeship or stepping-stone to a big payday at mainline airlines. The exception is the top ranks of the regional airline pilots, where captains with 15 years’ experience can earn $100,000 to $110,000 per year, Darby says.

Co-pilots may earn less than $20 per hour flying turboprops for Mesa Airlines, and pilots with 10 years’ experience make a little more than $73 per hour, on average, at U.S. regional airlines.

At the top ranks, a Republic Airlines pilot could make $119 per hour, and the maximum at the upper tier of regional pilots is just more than $100, on average.

Here are some of the hourly wage ranges for co-pilots and pilots, with varying levels of flying experience, at regional airlines:

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Skift
Saddled with debts from college and pilot training costs, regional airline pilots often endure an intense flight schedule of short hops from Atlanta to Macon, Ga., or from Phoenix to Flagstaff, Ariz., and get paid on an hourly basis.

A portrait of these hourly pay scales becomes even more pathetic when you consider that regional airline pilots, who are paid only from the time the airline leaves the gate to the time it arrives at the destination, only are on the clock on average about 21.5 hours per week.

For a first-year co-pilot at Republic Airlines, for example, that translates into gross weekly pay of a mere $495 per week.

For a pilot with 10 years’ experience at SkyWest, the weekly gross paycheck might be around $1,312.

But, then you have to consider that these wages don’t nearly reflect the hours that regional airline co-pilots and pilots have to put into the job.

Although they may only be on the clock 21.5 hours per week or 85 hours per month,” pilots typically are away from base, and from their families, about 240 to 300 hours per month (or about 60 to 75 hours a week),” according to the Airline Pilots Association.

For the lowest paid pilot on Mesa Airlines, this imbalance works out to $8.50 an hour for a 60-hour work week.

“They have a minimum pay for time on duty at some airlines, like one hour of pay minimum for every two hours on duty, and one hour of pay for every 4-5 hours away from home,” Darby says. “These rules are often not in effect at the smaller airlines, and are alway guaranteed by the larger major airlines’ union contracts.”

But there is cachet to being a pilot or first officer at a regional airline despite the strains of the job, and for most, the skimpy paychecks.

There is a lot of passion there.

“It is sort of like a paid sport for people who love it,” Darby says.

If it isn’t all about passion, then it revolves around moving up the ranks and getting a pilot job at a big airline.

Consider these co-pilot and pilot salaries at major airlines, as compiled by Future & Active Pilot Advisors:
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Skift
The average annual salary at the major airlines above at the most senior levels is just less than $200,000 annually.

Meanwile, the senior-most pilots at Delta, who fly B747s and B777s, earn around $245,000.

Working for 35 years and rising up the seniority ranks as a pilot at a major airline can mean career net pay and benefits of about $10 million, Darby says.

It’s a great gig, if you can get it. And, many regional pilots labor for years in the trenches trying to get there.

Safety
Darby says that the relatively paltry salaries paid to first officers and some pilots at regional airlines have not led, though, to a meaningful safety gap between the regional and mainline airlines despite the fact that regional pilots have to perform so many more takeoffs and landings than their network airline counterparts.

After all, Darby says, despite the low pay of the first officers, there’s always an experienced pilot in the cockpit.

The pilot has just as much invested in a safe flight as the passengers, Darby says, adding, “The pilot is at the front of the aircraft, and he’s (or she’s) highly motivated.”

In the aftermath of the 2009 crash of Colgan Air flight 3407, which was flying as Continental Express and saw the death of 50 people, co-pilots starting this month were required to complete at least 1,500 hours of pilot training to fly commercially in order to obtain an Airline Transport Pilot (ATP) certificate.

And, that’s up from the previous requirement of 250 hours of flight experience to obtain a commercial pilot certificate.

The NTSB report on the crash of Colgan Air flight 3407 found that inadequate pilot training and fatigue were secondary causes of the crash.

The more stringent requirements mean that regional airlines are scurrying to fill co-pilot and pilot positions — and the shortage comes precisely as major airlines, including Delta and United, are engaged in their first rounds of pilot hirings in several years.

In June, however, there were some job trims — not just for pilots — at regional airlines as mainline-airline partners cut back on their services in reaction to a spike in fuel prices.

But pilots at regional and mainline airlines are in demand. There will be a lot of pressure on these regional pilots’ salaries, especially as they have to pay to add seven times the previous number of hours required in order to qualify for an ATP certificate.

Most people will read the hourly rate chart, dismiss the idea regional pilots are underpaid. They will not read the text where "85 hrs/mo" is written.

NBC News: This just doesn't fly
 

I never understand who the audience is when one if these articles come out. We already know. PLEASE BLEAVE we know!!! The public could not care less. Wasted space if you ask me.

NBC News: This just doesn't fly
 

Believe*. Darn phone.

Are most/all regional FOs making less than $20k a year?

Strange,,,

I must be doing something wrong. I've been flying for UAL for 16 years and I'm just barely cracking 100K a year? I guess I should have read more Kit Darby articles.

Their first year, yes.

6 years and I'm barely cracking 40. I still make less then I did when I worked on the RAMP! I'd gladly trade paychecks, and workrules...

It's still a much better article then that yahoo one a few threads ago

If this article is to be believed, I should take the ExpressJet job over SkyWest because it pays $.05 more. :)

And the author never interviewed a former APC diehard who is partial to wearing Brown. 6 years ago, our Brown Friend posted that his W-2 showed he made over $400,000.

A 5year UNITED F/O makes more than a 5 yr FED EX FO. I don't think so

Well I know what I know and the numbers for the UAL stuff anyway is completely skewed and inaccurate. Which makes me think the rest of it is bovine scatology as well. But it sure will send the next batch kids running to sign up at ERAU.

I find it they post salaries for majors not per hour amounts. Also, as said by hoss it is not true.

NBC news article about regional pay
 

Same ***. Nobody cares, until airplanes crash that is.

I think most pilots would be happy if airline pilot pay were more balanced (Major airline captains would make less than ~200K and regional airline FO's would make more than ~30K).

Because major airline pilot pay is so high, pilots are willing to sacrifice while at regional airlines for 5-10 years, with the hope of eventually making large salaries.

Even then NOBODY cares about the pay.

Maybe you can help us out with the math? The APC site says starting hourly pay at UAL is $61. If you are year 6 and barely cracking 40, you'd have to be making less than $55/hr at 70 hour guaranteed.

Why was this moved?

How is that possible? Lowest paying FO @ 12 years is $124 at line holding guarantee of 70... That's $104,160 before tax.

Barely cracking? That's 3 (6 weeks) of my guarantee paychecks over $100,000.

If you can't make it on that at guarantee, you are doing something wrong.

Quote: "if you guys are flying those jets around for $25,000 a year, I'd say your union is worth about as much as a musicians union would be."

I'll lay it out for you in real simple easy to understand terms.
The Article claims a FIVE YEAR UAL F/O is making $130.641. I'm a 16 year F/O stuck on reserve almost never able to break guarantee. So that means that the article is using fuzzy math to come up with inflated numbers. So while it is possible that a guy could be making that if he was a line holding 5 year widebody F/O the reality is that the vast majority if any of us aren't.

Yes that is barely cracking 100K, basic math would indicate such. Sounds like you settled for a lousy bottom feeder of a job, I hope things work out for you in the future.

Where in the world did you see anywhere that I said I wasn't "making it" on my current wages? I only inferred that the article was full of sunshine and baloney. Never ONCE did I mention anywhere or infer that I wasn't "making it" and I don't appreciate your juxtaposition of that little ditty when it comes to my post. A little reading comprehension might be in order before you go spouting off like that in the future.

You have the entitlement mentality of a guy who didn't spend any time at a regional.

Actually, Hoss's road to UAL wasn't anything like the typical RJ driver nowadays. Meaning, he flew crappy equipment under non-existent work rules.

These kids don't have the slighest clue. I had 3,000+ hours before I saw my first flight director or turbine engine or auto pilot, that worked. 5,000+ before I ever stepped foot in a jet and that was real jet, a DC-8 that went all over the world, raw data no PFD's, ND's or FMC's, war zones included, not some automated barbie jet flying DSM to MSP, like Jr. here thinks he's paying his dues in.

Entitlement my butt. Lets not even talk about the last decade of fun and that was the easy stuff.