Whistlin' Dan
Well-known member
- Joined
- May 18, 2006
- Posts
- 460
I compared Captain pay to S/O pay only because that's where a person hired in the last 5 years at any of those companies is likely to be today.
As you pointed out, upgrades can "slow and speed up anywhere." For that reason alone, it's impossible to make a dollar-for-dollar comparison between any 2 airlines. But if you compare them over time, certain generalities become apparent. One is that while our published hourly rates are pretty close to industry standard, our career earnings are no better than that of most other ACMI carriers.
I used straight S/O pay for Astar, since that is the seat in which a new hire is likely to spend his first 8 years at the company. For the other carriers, I used the least favorable conditions that would still account for them making Captain in the time reported (starting at F/O or S/O, whichever paid less, for example). At Jet Blue, I assumed that a person spent his first 2 years in the Embraer, was seat-locked for another 2, then went to Airbus Captain. I did not add the "guaranteed 5% profit sharing" at JB simply because I forgot to.
Believe me, I wasn't trying to "massage" the numbers. I didn't need to...they speak for themselves.
I didn't post the 5-year snapshots for UPS or FedEx, but they're pretty close to the JetBlue numbers.
But why would Evergreen even have any 5-year F/O's, when it only takes 2 years to make Captain?
A more appropriate comparison would be typical 5-year employees at both companies. At Astar, he/she would be a S/O making $80/hr. At Evergreen, they would be a 747 Captain making $90/hr, while at Kalitta, they'd be doing the same job, but for $110/hr.
At Evergreen or Kalitta they would also be typed in the 747, and logging heavy, International time. True, not everybody's cup of tea, but a real inducement for guys with higher career aspirations.
I used 1,000 hrs/yr, as that's pretty close to what I've averaged over my career. That's pretty much what it is everywhere else, from what I can gather.
OK then, we'll look at 15 years. but we're not going to look at a condition that exists at a specific point in time, because the financial value of our careers are not defined by a single point in time, but by cumulative career earnings. Again using the hourly rates and time-to-upgrade info posted on that "other" website, we'll look at total earnings for the first 15 years at various ACMI carriers. I'll warn you in advance, you're not going to like this...
Gemini - $1,510,000
Evergreen - $1,531,000
Astar - $1,563,000 (finally surpasses Evergreen late in the 14th year)
Tradewinds - $1,618,000
Kalitta - $1,674,000
Jet Blue - $1,853,000 (again, just for S&G's, and because they're a LCC)
So you see, that while our hourly rates are well above those of our ACMI brethren, the actual amount of income we take home is middle-of-the-road at best, and in some cases somewhat less than so-called "scumbag" operators.
If you're happy, that's all that matters...
