What Can New Pilots Make? Near Minimum Wage

[xUT]

What Can New Pilots Make? Near Minimum Wage
 

A widening shortage of U.S. airline pilots is spotlighting the structure of an industry built on starting salaries for regional-airline pilots that are roughly equivalent to fast-food wages.
The shortage's toll rose Tuesday, as Republic Airways Holdings Inc., one of the nation's largest regional carriers, said it would remove 27 of its 243 aircraft from operation because it couldn't find enough qualified pilots. The news, which followed service disruptions at other airlines, sent Republic's shares down 4.1% to finish at $9.45.
Starting pilot salaries at 14 U.S. regional carriers average $22,400 a year, according to the largest U.S. pilots union. Some smaller carriers pay as little as $15,000 a year. The latter is about what a full-time worker would earn annually at the $7.25-an-hour federal minimum wage.

 

The shortage already is affecting big carriers. United Continental Holdings Inc. said this month that part of the reason it plans to slash flights at its Cleveland hub by 60% this spring is its regional partners' inability to meet the carrier's schedule. Republic is pulling 12 small jets that it flies for United.
 

 
 

Other carriers are resorting to different tactics. Great Lakes Aviation Ltd. of Cheyenne, Wyo., said it has 100 pilots, down from 300 just a year ago. It is removing 10 seats from a handful of its 19-seat planes to operate them under different Federal Aviation Administration rules that require pilots to have just 250 hours of experience.
"We have absolutely no ability to attract résumés" from pilots with 1,500 hours of flight time, said Doug Voss, chairman of Great Lakes, whose pilot salaries start at around $16,500 a year.
 

 
DUH!
B) xUT

 

[SharoninSAT]

What Can New Pilots Make? Near Minimum Wage
 
 
 
DUH!
B) xUT
 

An informative article xUT...
The shortfall of pilots is a problem and it continues to grow.
With the regional airline pilot salaries being what they are, there
is no incentive for choosing to fly for one. 

 

[nycbusdriver]

An informative article xUT...
The shortfall of pilots is a problem and it continues to grow.
With the regional airline pilot salaries being what they are, there
is no incentive for choosing to fly for one. 

 
ALPA maintains there is no pilot shortage.  Theoretically, they are correct.  Here's what they mean:
 
The numbers indicate that there are plenty of qualified pilots (i.e. holding an US FAA Airline Transport Pilot license with necessary flight experience and ratings and work-clearance for the US) to fly airliners in the US.  The problem is that a large number of them have taken jobs overseas where the pay is much better than the slave wages the regional carriers are willing to pay new pilots.  Compounded is the fact that leaving that comfortable overseas job means starting at the bottom of the ladder in the US, where the always volatile industry may mean you're stuck for a decade or more at what should have been a "temporary" entry-level situation.
 
One distinct advantage that non-US carriers often have is that they can hire highly experienced captains directly into a captain position (called Direct Entry Captain, or DEC).  The highly unionized US airline pilot work force does not permit such a lateral move due to its labor contracts.  It surprises me that the airline management community (usually represented by the ATA) is not whining that DECs must be allowed in order to save the industry from eventual meltdown.
 
If DECs were allowed, those US licensed airline pilots working overseas would return home in droves, and the shortage would disappear.  DON'T GET ME WRONG....I AM NOT IN FAVOR OF DECs HERE IN THE U.S., and I would hope the airline pilot community here would resist to its utmost to keep that from happening.  But I have little doubt that, behind the scenes, the ATA and its members are trying to figure out a way to get the DEC "camel's nose under the tent."  Beware.

 

[jeffgerst2407]

See it depends on what kind of pilot jobs you are searching for.

If you are searching the 250 hours pilot jobs then you can read this informative article. It contains complete details about 250 hours pilot jobs.

 

[La Li Lu Le Lo]

Compounded is the fact that leaving that comfortable overseas job means starting at the bottom of the ladder in the US, where the always volatile industry may mean you're stuck for a decade or more at what should have been a "temporary" entry-level situation..

The highly unionized US airline pilot work force does not permit such a lateral move due to its labor contracts.

Which is EXACTLY why UNION mechanic negotiations go nowhere.

Because the company knows they are going nowhere.

More to the point the UNION knows they are going nowhere.