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In the wake of the NTSB's hearings about the fatal Flight 3407 that crashed in Buffalo, more attention is being drawn on low pilot pay and their commutes. Flight 3407's captain commuted from Tampa to Newark while the co-pilot (who only made $16,000/year) commuted from Seattle. One young pilot tells the NY Times he makes $25,000/year as a co-pilot and is $100,000 in debt from training. One senior pilot said he was lucky to get 4.5 hours of sleep at a hotel, because others can't afford hotel rooms or even "crash pads" listed on Craigslist. A former regional pilot (now a safety consultant) said, "I know a guy who bought a car that barely ran and parked it in the employee lot at his base airport, and slept in his car six or seven times a month." And NY-based (but lives in Boston) pilot Alex LaPointe spoke to the Daily News, "Probably at least once a trip you find yourself nodding off just 'cause there's some days you don't get enough sleep...If you spend an extra three or four hours commuting on top of a 14-hour duty day, you can easily go 18, 20 hours of being up. It cuts into your rest. It certainly fatigues you."
Exhausted, Underpaid Airline Pilots Talk To The Media
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Hey, Republicans, guess what would fix this disgrace?
You got it! Tighter government regulation.
This is laughable. You realize that the airline industry has been bailed out numerous times (by the left and right, but it's certainly a populist, Democratic platform), and is probably the most regulated industry in this country.
Maybe if the government got the hell out, prices could find their equilibrium and airlines would be able to compensate their pilots better.
You, however, believe that we can craft a piece of legislation that some politician won't slip his own self-serving, quid pro quo, handshake stipulations into, that will make it so every pilot makes $150,000 and flights cost $100 so even the poor can fly to Hawaii or LAX.
I really am concerned for this nation as the populist, power hungry Democrats think they know how to fix our nation's ills.
You have a point, unfotunately not many people see this.
i poop on you
Well, at least they've held a firm line on stopping the shoe bombers!
If I wanted to work in any other industry for an employer based in Newark, I'd have to find a way to move to Newark. Otherwise, I'd have to find a different employer or a different type of job. I couldn't commute from thousands of miles away, because I couldn't afford the airfare.
These guys don't have to commute across the country, they're choosing that option because they're able to fly for free.
Cost aside, do you feel comfortable knowing that some rookie making 20g a year from Utah is responsible for the plane you're on?
Rookie? Most of the people flying have well over 600 hours of flying time and are trained for the aircraft they are flying. It's not like they let some bozo who just got their fixed-wing license fly a commercial aircraft. And what does being from Utah have to do with it? The vast majority of commercial pilots fly cross country to get to their hub.
Hmm 600 hours?
The equivalent of 15 40-hour work weeks?
Or 30 20 hr work weeks?
Yeah, rookie.
I'll bet you Utah air traffic is different than a larger market's air traffic.
And remember the aircraft he's flying was made by the lowest bidder.
And lets not even talk about who might be servicing the planes.
Anyone who pays attention to the industry knows it's been this way for years...if you didn't realize that before you dropped $100K on pilot's school, you're just irresponsible. If there weren't so many dumbasses like these guys accepting these jobs, the airlines would be forced to pay more. But there seem to be just enough schmucks with a false utopian vision of a pilot's life that the airlines get away with it.
Also something to keep in mind that these articles don't mention: these salaries are kept artificially low by FAA duty limits. These guys are paid about $25 an hour, which, if they worked 40 hour weeks, would be a much more respectable $50K annually. By law, however, they are restricted to working no more than 1,000 hours per year, or about 20 hours per week. I get the impression that if these guys actually lived near their bases and didn't waste hundreds of hours commuting to and from work, they would be able to work more hours and earn more money.
If the laws were examined and changed, if deemed safe, that is.
Exactly. Essentially they're paid what seems like a low total annual salary because they're doing it as a part-time job. They're doing that as an investment, in the hope that they'll eventually be able to move on to flying big iron for much better money.
Look at like interning at a hospital, putting in your time before bringing in big bucks.
yeah. Maybe they suck as pilots? These guys are douchebags. It's the equivalant of complaining that you only got a 32k a year job after you paid for 4 years of college.
It has nothing to do with how good or bad they may be as pilots, which isn't measured or even considered, and doesn't weigh into the pay structure. Commercial pilots are either competent enough to work, or they're not. You don't get paid more for being a better pilot than someone else.
I don't care how much you get paid...but if you fail the same test 5 times in a row, you should not be flying anywhere!!! you should be paying coach and sitting next to the bathroom.
whenever i got my cape on, i got my helmet on.
you cant tell me i aint go no helmet on.