And I agree that lower level pilots don’t earn much, but those with seniority do. I believe that is due more to the unions than any other cause. While pilot unions have done some good, in this area they have done bad.

Also, I’m sure pay is not the motivating factor on whether or not a pilot will do their best not to crash. How much it helps to make sure they are prepared for that moment is open to argument. I definitely believe that you should be looking at all in the chain of safety for the planes – designers, builders, mechanics, etc instead of just at pilots. I would rather have someone in each of these jobs who enjoys what they do instead of those motivated by pay. Which is more of an reason to pay senior pilots less.

And plenty of people in other professions play their share in my safety and wellbeing for all those hours I’m not flying.

BTW, those who are pointing out that you’d like a highly paid guy up front if/when the plane’s going down should realize that if the plane going down, I don’t really think paying the guy more will make him more motivated to NOT crash. Nor do I think that making north of $100k will present a real recruiting problem.

Now let’s look at some real numbers, compliments of airlinepilotcentral.com.

Continental Airlines:

First Year Pay: $31.00 per hour 76 hour guarantee per month $2,356.00 annually that works out to be $28,272.00 pre tax. It also probably took this first officer 10-15years to get to Continental Airlines. Shameful…

Now let’s look at a regional where he may have come from.

We’ll just pick Colgan Airlines as an Example (a regional carrier)

First Year Pilot Pay.: $21.00 per hour multiply this by their monthly minimum guarantee of 75 hours per month and that is $1,575.00 or $18,900.00 pretax. Annual pay.

Now let’s look at 5th year Captain Pay at this airline.
5th year Capt. Pay.$62.00 per hour at 75hours per month Monthly pay of $4,650.00 or $55,800 pretax.

Also, keep in mind these facts when you think about, “Those overpaid” airline pilots.

Max Duty Day 16 hours.

Minimum Rest is 8 hours from the time the parking brake is set to the time it is released when leaving the gate.

Max Flying hours:
Daily 8 hours
Weekly 30 hours in 7 days.
Monthly 100 hours
Annually 1000 hours.

Most pilots are away from home for 17– 19days per month and are not home for any Holidays or Birthdays.

You can lose your medical twice a year, lose your license anytime you fly and ultimately you can die if you mess up. How many Jobs have that description????

Also, on top of everything else I just told you, it takes an enormous amount of time, dedication and financial resources just to get on with a Regional Airline. Often it can take years to get on with a regional and easily $100,000.00 oh and don’t forget your 4 year degree.

All of you shouldn’t be angry that airline pilots are paid too much you should be outraged that we aren’t paid enough… Good airline pilots are leaving the Industry to seek out better wages elsewhere. Who will replace them?

When it comes down to it, everyday we go to work we take you, our passengers into a very hostile and dangerous environment . We are happy that you place this trust in us and will always do everything in our power to get you safely back on the ground. Don’t you think this is worth something?

Give us some respect and don’t begrudge us because we want a livable wage. We are professionals and worth a lot more than our current levels of pay across the board.

Be outraged, and spread the word.

“worth” more than the prevailing compensation.

Or worth more (or less) than what people are willing to agree on.

It is an easy one.. If you go to AirlinePilotCentral.com you can find the pilot hourly pay rates and a calculator for each airline.

Specific to your request- A UAL 747 CA annual W2 gross guarantee is $159,600 (per the website from Chris’s story, the absolute maximum number of flying hours/pilot permitted by the FAA is 1,000/year. There must be some reason this is a MAXIMUM. I would imagine not many pilots can actually fly that many and would probably be gone a lot if they did).

Since UAL has only 26 747′s, I would guess only the most senior pilots are a UAL 747 CA with probably around 30 years seniority for UAL.

I don’t know about you, but that doesn’t seem like all that much for someone (airline captain) responsible for several hundred lives in a job where mistakes have tragic consequences?

NSS-

Here is an easy one — what does a UA 747 captain get paid per year? Pls publish that number — I bet it is more than most of your readers will make this year.

Why should you or I care how much of our ticket price goes toward pilot pay? We should be worried about price and getting there safely, and not necessarily in that order.

Note especially the last lines from the link NotSureSometimes posted here:

Whether it is in the operating room or an airline cockpit, if you want the “best” individuals there, you will have to provide the incentives to get them first.

The bottom line questions are: In the future, who do you want replacing these aging and very experienced veteran pilots? Is it worth a few dollars more to attract the “right stuff” to be responsible for such an important job?

Perhaps also something to consider.

I went to the author’s website: AirlineFinancials.com. On the commentary page, there is a long version with some additonal charts and explanations.

I think if you read the whole story, you will have a COMPLETELY different understanding.

I’m not sure if this will work but here’s a link to the page with the full explanation:

http://www.airlinefinancials.com/Airline_commentary_Herbst_.html

I certainly have no problems whatsoever with pilot pay. And I don’t see any other commenters in here who do either (other than Stephen). I would encourage you to go back and re-read the comments.

Our problem is that the statistical analysis that Christopher presented doesn’t actually tell us anything at all about how much pilots make! It gives some meaningless “hourly” figures that are evidently some extrapolation of a percentage of ticket sales. They tell us nothing about pilot salaries…nor do they give any indication as to whether or not they are making more, or less, than before.

And these numbers have NOTHING whatsoever to do with “minimum wage”. The title of this article is completely misleading and, frankly, mystifying.

I, personally, AM interested in the numbers. That’s what this article was ostensibly about – pilot pay. Instead, we got a bunch of data that none of us can figure out.

In all seriousness, our issue is not with pilot pay. It’s with Christopher putting out a misleading, confusing and ultimately worthless article, which is VERY much unlike him!

Come on, Christopher. We know you can do better! (We see you do better every day!)

To the previous poster Stephen—- you sound like that POS airline exec. in the southern US. ? Are you really so stupid to compare Pilots to walmart workers? (not that there’s anything wrong with walmart) Also, you say if you don’t like it leave. You know darn well a pilots job isn’t transferable.
Speaking of jobs… who did you bribe to be able to run another airline? (if it is you steve) I’m just glad you wont ever make CEO. ( the government got one thing right)

Well folks thanks for reading my rant since I endured yours. But seriously, If you think pilots are just whining, why don’t you try it? You will see it probably isn’t worth it. Long hours, gone from your family 4-5 days a week, substandard treatment from corporate as*ho%es like steve. Then you get thrown to the curb after 20 years of dedication.

Next time you get on a flight I hope your Pilots are as good as you expect them to be. Especially if the sh*t hits the fan!