I hate to rain on your (already rainy) parade, but most "third world" wages are double or triple what the US wages are. In fact, US pilots are getting a bad wrap on the int'l contracts for coming in and undercutting the locals (third world as you put it). It's not bad enough they ruined the US Airline industry, now they want to ruin it for the rest of the world too...

 

Bad,

Good point.

Pilots don't buy airplanes.

 

Currently third world countries are trying to ramp up their production of pilots and have to offer high wages to attract western pilots in the mean time. Once they develop their own source of cheaply trained and abundant flight crews then I predict that the high wages are going to plunge as they are able to hire locals instead.

I offer as an example the international shipping fleet. At one time those big ships were maned by highly paid western crews. Now it is all third world people who will take a lot of abuse and get paid peanuts because in their home countries their wages go much farther and so they are happy.

In 10 to 15 years 747-400 crews could fly into JFK from New Deli and then stay with the plane for a month before going home at half the wages that a US pilot would want/need.

Skyhigh

 

Problem is that will never happen. With VERY few exceptions, most countries HIGHLY restrict GA, and the low price seen in the US, Canada and VERY few other places is that the GA market is supported by the hobbiest crowd.

The only way the US and Canada do is that there is 100 years of general aviation aircraft/pilots/infrastructure to support relatively low cost training.

You can't get 10 172s in India and run a training school and call it "low cost" when you're paying $50 for a mandatory flight plan, $10 a landing and $5/liter for Avgas. You NEED the recreational pilots to drive down the costs of operations.

Plus if the ATP requirement comes to pass for 121 operations, that means the MPL is effectively dead in the US.

Nu

 

If we have learned nothing from changes in our own aviation system then we at least should acknowledge that if there is a will there is a way. Business and governments will move mountains if it means gaining an advantage.

Third world countries are advancing quickly. CFI jobs are beginning to pop up internationally. They will have their own training fleets and floods of university trained pilots who are dedicated, obedient and speak perfect English.

Imagine a future where ex-military UAV pilots sit in a control room and manage five flights at a time who are crewed by outsourced overseas pilots who come to the US to fly here under free flight and sit there motionless for hours upon hours while being observed by live video feed back to headquarters in a mostly automated and ground controlled system.

Chilling but it could happen. I don't see why it will not.

Skyhigh

 

Sky, how is it you would onl be making 72k as a Horizon CA? Granted I pick up as much Advertised trips as I can, and straight pick up (when we had no furloughs) and I was able to make $50,000.00 before taxes (including per diem) at Expressjet as a 3rd yr F/O @ a payrate of $34.46 an hour?

I had to sacrifice like work over my vacation but I am sure it wouldn't require that much work to make 80k as a Horizon CA with a good QOL?


Best advice I can give anyone is marry a rich women.............

 

Horizon is not that great.
Unpaid hanger pick up and drop offs at the start and end of trips.
No block or better.
Back to back 3 day trips.
Q 400 pays less but seats more and the pilots who fly it work more. I know you get what you can hold but the payrate is still there.

$72K would be guarantee for an 11 year Q400 captain. $90/hr x 80 hour guarantee x 10 bid periods a year.

A 9 year CRJ captain would be $72,800 a year.

 

The main reason it probably won't happen (I won't say that it can't happen...) is that in a lot of these "3rd world" countries, the locals make more than we (the ex-pats) do. They can train as many people as they want, and even if they do manage to come up with all the qualified bodies to fill the seats, they'll have to pay them more than they pay the ex-pats. So, not any great concern about third world pilots flying all the int'l stuff. (Why would they pay extra thus making lower profits???). The unfortunate reality is that we (Americans) have become the cheap labor throughout the world...

 

Horizon Air has a five week bid period that translates into 10 bid periods per year. If you try and use a 12 bid periods per year to calculate annual income then you would be over estimating.

In addition, I did not and never would sell my days off and vacations to the company. I did what was expected from me and went home. Also I do not count per diem as pay. It is compensation for being on the road. Using it as additional income is a false method.


Skyhigh

 

Not the case where I'm at (not in the sand pit). The locals get screwed good.