Soul-crushing is a good way to put it. For me, never being able to go to the lake or hiking in the mountains on my time off without coordinating with coworkers in case one of my accounts calls when I’m out of cell reception made me feel like I was never free. Miss a call on your time off and not get the issue addressed... be ready to face the boss in the morning. Cutting the grass? Be sure to look at your work phone when you get done in case you missed a call. (Basic manufacturing job). Something at the account happens at midnight? Or dinner? Stop what you’re doing to get on a teleconference or head back into the office. Those responsibilities came with a sub $60k salary, but good health benefits.

Lives weren’t in my hand, but if one of my accounts couldn’t support the assembly line and caused it to shut down, that cost $10-12k per minute to pay all the workers to stand around waiting for the next parts to arrive. Have fun explaining that one to the boss that your day off at the lake caused the supplier to have imperfect coordination, resulting in an extra $200k expense that couldve been avoided. I never had to because I was on top of it all, but it gets old fast carrying that ball and chain.

There are a lot of ‘cushy’ desk jobs that merely appear cushy at face value.

 

Reading this made me angry and feel like puking. Seriously, when I hear guys complain about the $ and I compare $ vs. deliverables at work (morning, noon, and night), it’s always obvious who has not been in management/corporate America. Every job has pluses/minuses, but I cannot imagine many with the earning potential of 121 without the commensurate deliverables/emails/meetings/soul crushing.

 

That’s actually not entirely accurate, (if true then we’d have to say the same about legacy/major carriers too). There are a few ACMI where they will hire with lower time, but none are really entry level. The few that have good contracts require similar entry requirements as a legacy with the degree being preferred instead of required, however low timers are not being hired at those places. The very few places hiring low timers have been hiring mostly regional captains or senior FO’s (Atlas has hired many former Expressjet and Mesa pilots).

I’m ACMI, and we only fly PAX also. One of the biggest misconceptions is that ACMI are only box haulers. I don’t worry about 25 minute turns either, but not because we won’t do them, but because our airline doesn’t even schedule them. Almost 70% of the flights are one and done. 20% result in a crew change while the pax continue on... again a one and done for the crew. The final 10% are turns. Min scheduled turn time is 2 hours. We have one location where turns are done in 45 minutes, but that is a special case location. There is a rumor that we are adding 777 cargo ops, but since places like ABX are having trouble staffing, and we have a line out the door and have to turn off our hiring window it seems the planes are starting to go to whomever has the pilots to operate them as opposed to the cheapest bidder.

If they are a new pilot focused on part 121 they will need to start at a regional. Nobody is starting at an ACMI. When they reach the TT for an LCC, that’s about the same minimum for the ACMI also. It’s also the same TT required for a legacy if they hustle their butt off making connections, attending job fairs, checking boxes and pursuing the job they want. It’s a pilots market. Unfortunately regionals are still the entry level jobs. The difference is they can start getting out once they have 2500 TT, when in the not so distant past it was 10,000 TT to get out.

 

At ACMI it Depends on the company. Some routinely fly 80+ a month. Others barely fly 25 a month. However, there is also something to be said for international heavy experience operating Boeing equipment. I know many that have gone to legacy carriers from ACMI’s. It’s really more about applying yourself to get the job you want.