Airline Pilot Central Forums - Fokker F-100 Pilots

May 30, 2006

Barry Shiff’s article (The Glory Days are Over, June, 2006) not only hit the mark, it blew it clean out of the water. It is a sad but truthful commentary about a formerly proud industry that has sunk under the weight of bad management, poor business decisions, plain bad timing of events and political neglect. I thank Captain Schiff for not agonizing too long over expressing his poignant views.

I too was an airline pilot for 33 years. After serving as a civil and military pilot I was hired by Northeast Air Lines in 1968. I made it through a turbulent beginning to relative stability after merging with Delta Air Lines in 1972. I retired in 2001, two months before 9-11. We pilots were proud to wear the airline uniform and gladly accepted the awesome responsibility it evoked. Our neighbors thought we were underworked and envied the time we seemed to have at home with our families. They didn’t see us leave for work in the wee hours of the morning or late at night and they couldn’t imagine the stress of long days or nights punching through the same weather system eight or nine times while shooting approach after approach. The commuter folks know this scenario better than I. My non-airline neighbors never knew the exhaustion of flying through the night to Europe, South America or Asia and then back home the following day and then doing the same a few days later (many of us commuted across several states to do this). And my wife and kids learned that the celebration of a holiday, birthday or anniversary was often days before or after the actual event due to the whims of crew scheduling. But we were rewarded with a good salary and benefits that we negotiated with the company throughout the years. At Delta, as is true with most airlines, we started as a flight engineer (second officer) and climbed the seniority ladder earning better trips and time off, then started again at the bottom as a copilot (first officer) climbing again until we finally became the exalted captain. And this ladder climbing and starting over happened again whenever we bid up to a better paying, more prestigious aircraft such as moving from the MD-80 to the B-757/767. But we loved our jobs and the wonderful like minded people people with whom we shared the sky.

Unfortunately, the airlines are faced with unprecedented costs these days and continue to sell their seats at prices based on the verge of loss. The greatest cost to the company is fuel and the second biggest chunk is labor. Management can’t do much about fuel cost ( just think of filling your own car) but they can, to some extent, control the cost of labor. Guess which cost the airlines focus on. It seems a shame that many commuter pilots are paid so little that they may qualify for food stamps. And even at the majors the salaries, benefits and work rules have been slashed abruptly and extensively by managements using the bankruptcy lever as a tool.

No, I would not recommend an airline pilot career to a youngster swimming up the stream of modern day commercial aviation. There are too many waterfalls to negotiate, the river is rising and moving too fast in the wrong direction and the safety net of a reasonable retirement pension with medical benefits has been badly holed and is on the verge of being ripped away entirely. The glory days are indeed over. The reward of wearing the uniform of an airline pilot has been sadly minimized and, as Barry says, should one insist in enduring the pitfalls of pursuing an airline career, he or she should have another vocation to fall back upon.

My son, Eric, almost followed in my footsteps. He attended and graduated from Comair Academy in the early ‘90s, became a flight instructor and nearly took a job as a feeder pilot. Thankfully for him, he settled on a career in real estate development and airport management. He still flies, but only when he wants to. And he has a pretty steady salary, sleeps in his own bed at night and has no fear of having to commute across several states to work.

Thanks again, Barry, for stating the unvarnished truth. It is my fervent hope that the careers of airline pilots can be enhanced to where they once were. But I’m not holding my breath.