What if it was regulated that the maximum any pilot could make was 80K and the least was 45K.

What is the job really worth anyway? Are pilots worth 250K? I don't think so especially when the rest of the world is making it work with 250 hour pilots.

The fact is that the world is coming here. Competition and globalization will continue to put downward pressure on the airlines. Most likely we will see even less market controls when open skies hits America. How about third world pilots making third world wages flying american routes?

It is on its way. Globalization hit the cab market long ago.

Skyhigh

 

Skyhigh,
Yes they are, depends on what they are asked to do. Take an air ambulance pilot that saves a loved member of your family, and they made 250K, would it be worth it? Heck yeah in my book, if they can command the prices. What's the self masochistic angst against pilots making coin? Sully is worth the 250K, he doesn't get it, same with his F/O. Those two saved a planeload of people with experience. A 250 hour ab initio F/O may have ridden along with the Sully's but may have likely choked and caused tragedy. Price doesn't equal experience, but it probably is as good a market measure as anyone can get.
The liabilty an airline Capt and crew (look at Comair lexington crash for liability numbers) can lay financial wreckage on the company, much more than most of the management executives. Yeah, pilots are worth it.

 

With the market pressures working downward on wages, if the airlines are allowed to continue in an unregulated manner, there is going to have to be a market pressure in order to change things. Right now, the public does not seem to differentiate between different carriers when it comes to safety and pilot experience.

Right now, the evidence seems to be that for whatever reason (automation, technology, dual cockpit, etc) having significant experience in an airplane does not seem to matter much when it comes to flying airliners. Maybe it is just that there are very few opportunities for true piloting skills to be needed, so accidents are just statistically avoided. Maybe an accident like colgan's rears its head only so rarely that it doesn't really matter if the pilots are so unskilled as to deal with adversity.

I believe that flying public (myself included) will continue to buy the cheapest ticket available with little care as to the name of the airline until they have a reason. Sadly, I don't believe there will be a change to that until there are significant issues with airline safety. Right now, accidents don't happen very often. Until airplanes are falling out of the sky often enough for people to take notice, there will be very little discussion about experience in the cockpit. Even if there is a rash of problems, it will still take a while for the flying public to understand the makeup of airline talent to understand that there is a significant difference in talent and experience in the commuter/regional world from the majors. Then they will have to start demanding that they are able to fly only on major airlines without some sort of codeshared commuter flight getting them to their big airplane.

My point is that the market doesn't see a need for experience in the cockpit right now. The sad truth is that it will take some real pain in order for people to demand it. Maybe it isn't needed. Maybe the price of flying is that the chance of crash is .001% higher than it was.

 

It is all relative. A school kid could be messed up for life by one bad teacher. An Army Sargent in Afghanistan could wipe out an entire village with improper artillery coordinates. Every bus driver has the responsibility of dozens of passengers. There are plenty of jobs that carry huge responsibility. Most are not paid what they are worth.

What is a pilot really worth?

They are worth the break even point where just enough pilots show up for ground school for the wages they are being offered. I think the job will find its natural parity point at around 80K for a major airline captain. A large part of a pilots total compensation lies in job satisfaction.

Skyhigh

 

Nationally aviation is very safe and getting safer in spite of low time pilots.

Skyhigh

 

That's certainly the philosophy of many airline CEOs these days. But when you build a house, do you hire the cheapest licensed subcontractors available? That will work, but there may be an additional price down the road. Someone else may have to pay it, of course.

 

Do you think that De-regulation ended the "glory days" of the airline industry? I don't know if you're looking for a bigger salary or for a lifestyle that existed 40 years ago as a pilot but I don't think either one was lost by de-regulation.
The airlines just like any other industry (or aspect of our culture) are evolving and we're not going to go back to the way things were. Things won't be the same in another 40 years as they are now but they wont be like the past either. We need to try to guide our industry down a good path into the future but trying to drive it back into the past is futile.

 

You make statements as if you have done studies, drawn graphs, interviewed people and are an expert in airline pay. I have no idea what pilots should be paid, what they will be paid or what will happen to the industry next month. Although you sound like an intelligent person, unless you present some kind of data to back up your claims, I would no more believe your figures over a room full of monkeys throwing darts at a dart board with salary figures attached to it.

 

I use to work for a start up called National Airlines. They had experienced pilots lined up around the corner to fly the 757 for 55k captain pay. Every other start up hasn't had trouble finding pilots either at painfully low starting wages.

I am sure that if the major airlines were free to set whatever wages they wanted they would not have any trouble filling ground school classes at less than half of their best captain wage.

Skyhigh

 

Sub contractors compete on the open market. They do not have union contracts to artificially inflate their rates. If they get to far out of line then they go hungry.

Since deregulation free market forces have been putting downward pressure on pilot wages. Why is it that one 737 captain for a 121 airline might make 60K while another makes 120K for flying the same plane on the same routes?

Eventually they both will be at 60K.

Skyhigh