US Carriers Defend Pilot Pay After...
 

US Carries Defend Pilot Pay After Buffalo Crash

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aJeU7Viw6UMU

June 17 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. regional airline pilot pay is “fair and reasonable,” the head of the carriers’ trade group said, defending salaries under scrutiny after a fatal crash near Buffalo, New York.
Rebecca Shaw, 24, copilot of the Pinnacle Airlines Corp. Colgan plane that crashed, earned $23,900 a year, the carrier has said. Federal Aviation Administration chief Randy Babbitt questioned June 15 whether such pay attracts “the best and the brightest.”
Commuter carrier copilots on average earn $32,000, “in line with comparable professions,” Roger Cohen, president of the Regional Airline Association, told a Senate subcommittee today in Washington. He called pay in all parts of the industry, including regional carriers, “fair and reasonable.”
Lawmakers at the Senate aviation-panel hearing echoed questions raised during a National Transportation Safety Board hearing last month as to whether pilot pay at small carriers is adequate. It was Congress’s third hearing on aviation safety since June 10.
“We’re trying to do it on the cheap,” said Senator Mike Johanns, a Nebraska Republican. “We are hiring pilots at a very low wage.”
Senator Frank Lautenberg, a New Jersey Democrat, called the pay “modest” and said that at $20,000, a pilot would be close to earning “minimum wage, for any kind of job.”
Such pay may force pilots to take second jobs, increasing the risk they show up for airline work tired, Lautenberg said.
Comparable Professions
Copilot pay is in line with comparable professions such as a paramedic or medical assistant, Cohen said. Captains at regional carriers earn an average of $76,000, he said. Pinnacle has said the average salary for a captain on the type of plane that crashed in Buffalo is $67,000.
Wage differences between major and regional carriers are as much as $70,000 for a captain and $50,000 for a first officer with five years of experience, John Prater, president of the Airline Pilots Association union, told the panel.
Pilot pay is a result of collective bargaining, James May, president of the Air Transport Association large carrier trade group in Washington.
“Neither legislation nor regulation can effectively peg what is the right compensation in such a system of negotiated wages, benefits, and working conditions,” May told the panel.
The Bombardier Inc. Dash 8 Q400 crashed Feb. 12 in Clarence Center, New York, as it approached Buffalo’s airport from Newark, New Jersey. The dead included one person on the ground and all 49 people on board the plane, which Colgan operated for Continental Airlines Inc.
The NTSB is examining whether the crew responded improperly to a stall warning, pulling the nose of the aircraft up, rather than pointing it down to increase speed. NTSB evidence shows the pilots let the plane lose more than a quarter of its airspeed in 21 seconds, setting off a cockpit stall warning.

:eek:

This guy is really something else...

I had a few laughs watching Cohen in this most recent hearing. Dodging questions, not knowing stuff, etc.

This guy is scared, I can assure you. They (RAA airlines) have run down to the cheapest possible way to operate while still obeying the letter of the law (in most cases). This recent crash has opened the door of scrutiny to just how thin and cheap everything is being done - whipsaws, outsourcing of jobs. Its not small airport regional hopping anymore, its a cheap way to replace your more expensive experienced pilots. He's afraid. The way he stumbles over himself and clears his throat left and right - this is the way someone acts when he is nervous and feels overpowered.

I hope so, the regionals are paying the same wages practically they did in the mid 90s. The COL has gone up nearly 50% since then. The work rules, pay, etc., the regional guys live under is pathetic. I hope the legacy of the Colgan crew is that they highlight the ridiculously bad working conditions of the regional airlines. If real change happens you will be much better for it. Frankly, I don't know how you guys do it day in and day out.

Its the dream, man.

The ability to ignore reality in the hopes of one day getting the gig that will make all the suffering worthwhile. The same dream people who spend their rent money on scratch tickets, or risk the mortgage in Vegas have. You just have to hope your odds are better than theirs are.

Despite all evidence to the contrary.

I certainly wouldn't click that link

Cohen is such an as*hole, someone needs to shut his mouth for him, such a liar.

Well said, I was going to say 'nightmare', but hey, it's still a dream right???

50k a year for a CA?? I hope to earn half of that!

I don't know anything about what various medical assistants would make or be responsible for, but I do know a very limited amount about the paramedic field, and as far as I know most places pay them more than a starting salary of $22,000-ish a year. Considerably more. Also how does he get off comparing apples to oranges to bananas? Did we not just see an event happen the other day which proved that the FO is a very important asset to the safety of flight?