Regional pilots earning less than $20k - michael moore.

[iainso]

Michael Moore's film 'capitalism' was on tv at the weekend, he was talking about how badly paid airline pilots are nowadays (thanks to the airline's being focused on pleasing stockholders above anything else). I was quite shocked by this, for such a highly skilled and safety critical job. I knew instructors and bush pilots were badly paid, but never thought someone carrying 250 passengers would be.

I know Michael Moore's films tend to only show one side of the story, but is this really the state of the airline industry?

[RRN1988]

I don't think so this is the case with the pilots carrying 100+ passengers. However, it might be true with the regional/low cost airlines...

[Brett_Henderson]

For what it's worth.. the young, fresh out of college with an aviation degree, CFI who taught me instrument flight... quit his right-seat job with a regional, to go back to instructing part-time, and delivering pizza a couple nights a week..

"I still get paid to fly, have human hours, and make more money" ..

[analog999]

I think your best bet if you want to fly and get paid well quickly is to join the military. I have some friends who are captains and they make $75k/year plus their benefits are great. They're not pilots, but for those captains, majors etc that are pilots, wow, that's decent money for only putting about 5 years into a career where the military will pay to train you.

[wolf2]

when i lived in pensacola four years ago i knew a captain of a crj-100. he made 22,000 a year. and during my flying years, except for one single corporate job, i always made less than that as a pilot. as a cfi, a lot less, and i used to also drive a little air freight truck taking "air trays" (human remains containers) to lax to make ends meet.

[angels355]

I've heard of regional pilots in MT earning very little, $13K US? And low wages are normal in regional carriers, starting pay for a large airline first officer is not so great I've heard. I've heard Starbucks workers earn more than many regional carriers. While waiting for a professional job I worked 80 hours/week in retail as an ordinary clerk and made significant money. There are 1 or 2 threads on this subject in this forum.

I can't stand Michael Moore however, I don't care what he has to say. His theory is that capitalism is dead and that the wold needs Marxism. The Marxist movement is very strong in Europe and there are very strong forces in America also. I believe in freedom as guaranteed by the American founding fathers and the Constitution, and the free market system.

The military is a great place to earn a living as a pilot. A friend retired from the AF and went straight into heavy metal at a major airline, and it didn't take long for him to be promoted to Captain.

I have been studying the possibility of a flight career among other careers also. I try to study, and try to find the best method to train, and consider what future options I might have both in aviation and other fields.

Thought I would mention that with regards to another significant career field, medicine, because of the Healthcare Bill, I know several would be Doctors who dropped their medical education specifically because of that Healthcare Bill and there are working Doctors who say they want to leave medicine. Proponents such as Moore and others who envision a Marxist Utopia overlook that it has never worked in the past.

[Cloudy_]

I'm not sure how many hours per year pilots typically work, but this website seems to show hourly wages.

http://www.willflyforfood.com/airline-pilot-salary/

Cloudy_

[angels355]

I'm not sure how many hours per year pilots typically work, but this website seems to show hourly wages.

http://www.willflyforfood.com/airline-pilot-salary/

Cloudy_

If I recall pilots are limited to no more than 1,000 FLIGHT hours/year. 40 hours/week for 52 weeks is 2080 hours, as a retail endentured worker I worked as many as roughly 4,000 hours in a year.

There have been complaints that regional pilots don't even make enough to stay at a hotel so they sleep in their car or in the terminal. Some say that that contributed to a regional airline plane crash in recent years which was terribly sad.

My opinion is that you just say no to ridiculously low wages. One professional field career adviser told me, never volunteer your services for free. Now that I look back on it I agree, the job market is so dog-eat-dog that one can not really afford to work for free for charity, and in my opinion that carries over to working for starvation wages at a regional carrier. There has to be alternatives to giving up and working for so little money. I think overpaid management takes advantage of pilots desperate to fly and willing to do so for nearly nothing. I think management should take a pay cut. BTW I hate unions.

[dmncnpilot]

Actually most of you are wrong. I'm a furloughed Regional pilot (furloughed meaning temp. layoff) I flew the ERJ-145. A part 121 airline pilot can only fly 1,000 hours a year, no more that 30 hours in a 7 day block and no more that 8 hours in a 24 hour block. If you pass that, the FAA might violate you, and that means no flying for you. Pay is based on hours flown, not hours waiting around for an airplane or during your over night. So if you have a long 14 hour duty day, but only fly 3 hours, which happens alot unfortunately, huess what??? you only get paid 3 hours of work! So...if you make $25 and hour you only made $75 for that day Sounds great right?? nope! it really sucks! now most First Officers make about $20-$23 an hour as a new hire. Once you make it to Captain, then depending on the airline, you might start out at $40 an hour. if you guys want real good figures go to www.airlinepilotcentral.com

I love flying airliners. It's a fun job, but you put so much into this career, gone so much, miss important dates and on top of that pay sucks!! Find another career! I advise anybody wanting to persue this careers to think about it long and hard. It's not a very stable industry. Add that up with everything else, it's a recipe for some very hard times.

[dmncnpilot]

If I recall pilots are limited to no more than 1,000 FLIGHT hours/year. 40 hours/week for 52 weeks is 2080 hours, as a retail endentured worker I worked as many as roughly 4,000 hours in a year.

There have been complaints that regional pilots don't even make enough to stay at a hotel so they sleep in their car or in the terminal. Some say that that contributed to a regional airline plane crash in recent years which was terribly sad.

My opinion is that you just say no to ridiculously low wages. One professional field career adviser told me, never volunteer your services for free. Now that I look back on it I agree, the job market is so dog-eat-dog that one can not really afford to work for free for charity, and in my opinion that carries over to working for starvation wages at a regional carrier. There has to be alternatives to giving up and working for so little money. I think overpaid management takes advantage of pilots desperate to fly and willing to do so for nearly nothing. I think management should take a pay cut. BTW I hate unions.

I agree with you, but airline pilots without unions would be alot worse than we are now. As bad as unions are! unfortunately....