The more and more I read about sorry regional pay in the United States and other issues with regionals I wounder if the situation is the same for regional airlines in other countries. Does anyone have an idea of what the regional airlines situation is elsewhere?

 

I know there was a contract floating around for E145 pilots for FlyBe in the UK. The offer I saw as an FO was in the neighborhood of $105,000 USD for the 1 year contract. I'm not sure what a non-contract FO would have made but I doubt it would be much less.

 

The Flybe thing died a while back. A mate of mine is a captain on the 145. Well, he was, now he's transitioning to the Q400.

He had a really hard time hiding his suprise at what my pay was when we talked about it about 12 months ago. I'm on year 6, CA pay at ZW.

In the EU, they tend to start the FO's off at a much better salary than the US. But you have to remember that it costs a lot more to get your ATPL and more often than not you'll also have to pay for a 737/320 type to get your first job.

 

With the possible exception of India, there's no comparison. The standards for entry are much higher. The pay is much higher. The time to upgrade--and the prerequisites-- are much higher. Standards, in other words, are high and are being maintained.

 

As has been stated, pay is much higher. Work rules in Europe are more refined, particularly in regard to rest and duty time. Sectors (legs) per day are considered with a crew rest calculation.

Another important note is that the "regional" airline is much different. There are relatively few (compared to US) RJ's, and that makes the B737 an entry level jet. With the multi crew pilot license, I personally know of B737 FO's with less hours than required for an FAA commercial license. And they still get more pay and better work rules than an entry level US "regional".

I would consider my airline a "regional" is the purest meaning of the word. But we do not do contract flying (or code share, for that matter), which is what you really mean by "regional". CRJ's and B737's are operated by the same company pilots.

Our company does have two different "regional" carriers, one of which operates the A340. The other operates turboprops, which more closely aligns with the US "regional" paradigm, however our company is also getting Q400's which will be operated by company pilots.

The US model is definitely not one that I'd want copied worldwide, nor do I think it will be.

 

This is not true, as my students will be flying 737s and A320s with about 200hrs total time....Everything else is more than true however.

 

Look the cost of living in the uk is twice that of the us. The best scenario would be to work in the uk but live in the us. The only places where high pay scales actually have the most effect is india and china.

 

According to Wheelsup they are............they fly smaller planes then him and perhaps make less money. He believes that is the benchmark as to one's worth.

 

I think what he was referring to was not flight hours. He was talking about tests, medicals, ect. Hell, a JAA class one medical alone can cost up $1,000. And they do a full work up there.

 

Regardless of what he was referring to, the "standards for entry" are far from high, I am speaking from first hand experience. Citizenship and 50-60k Euros is pretty much all you need, and a pulse. They will go on to have a paycheck, work rules, and QoL we can only dream of.