Caravan salaries

[English]

My company is buying a Caravan and is planning to put it on our 135 certificate to fly passengers.

Our pilots are concerned that the pilot hired for the position is not undercut salary-wise, so I'd like to ask any of you Caravan drivers out there what a reasonable first year salary should be.

This is for a position in California. Sorry, we already have hired a person for the job, just negotiating over salary at this point.

 

[Airpiraterob]

208

well, it varies widely....i mean widely.

i came out of cargo using one, and they had to up the salary cause poeple wouldnt work for us. i almost quit for instructing again and people left or never showed up to begin with. that was at 18k plus incentives.

now its 24+per diem+mileage and thats in the northeast. its still kinda low in a way. cost of living is higher out there so more is good. so something like high 20's would be a good start i think. if theres alot of customer service involved, then even 30k might jsut b e the right start. but there better be hot GOOD coffee on board.

Air Net pays the same in the caravan as in the baron starting out i hear..high 20's but chances to make it 30 or a little more depending on how much flying is done.

call up the "professional pilot" magazine people, get theyr yearly issue of average salaries, and keep in mind theyre typically on the high end when they print it. but for california that might be appropriate.

good luck!

 

[Future SNA]

it varies i'd say...

Depending on the amount of flying, cost-of-living, experience, etc, I'd agree with what was said above, it varies widely. Ours start anywhere from 30-35, and that is flying cargo, flying 40-50 hours/month. With the cost of living in California, I'd say realistically the upper end of that would suffice. I'm trying to get on with an operator right now that has a base of 30K, but X numer of dollars/mile, per boarder crossing, etc. Supposedly ends up coming to around 45K your first year with the opportunity to move into HEAVY iron after 12 months.

 

[whatthe]

FedEx Feeders

FedEx feeders 1st year pay is about 34k, depending on the route you may do a bit better or a bit worse. Plus they all have medical, dental, 401k etc...

 

[U-I pilot]

who are the fedex feeders? (If there are a bunch just list a few... for an idea)
-Thx

 

[Future SNA]

Baron Aviation, Mountain Air Cargo, Wiggins(?), help me out here fellas...................

 

[FlightTraker]

Go to www.caravanpilots.com

Its all right there


FlightTraker

 

[U-I pilot]

thx for the link.....
-UIpilot

 

[U-I pilot]

while we are on the topic...who are the UPS feeders and is there a site?

 

[whatthe]

As far as I know UPS doesnt have feeders per se. They simply contract out to the lowest bidder for their overnight express pkg service into the smaller communities. They don't really have an established feeder program like FedEx does, where FedEx has a hand in just about every decision and provides sim training to the feeder pilots, and FedEx actually owns the airplanes (Caravans and Fokkers and beginning this year the ATRs). UPS simply takes bids from 135 operators that have (what they consider) suitable airplanes and goes with the lowest bidder. I'm not sure how often they do this, I have heard its every 3 months.

 

[Future SNA]

whatthe is right, I haven't heard how often new bids come up, but I think it's a little longer, somewhere around a year maybe? not for sure. Anyways, the only ones I hear around here in the midwest are Key Lime Air our of Denver, and Planemasters out of West Chicago, undoubtedly someone else knows others. When I used to go into Louisville, the Air Cargo Carrier's boys used to have their shorts' in the house. I know Central Air used to do some UPS Next-Day, I'm constantly hearing how the 2 guys were dogfighting and ran into each other, and all UPS could say was, "are the boxes okay!"

 

[supsup]

Just hired in the 208

I'm currently in training in the caravan for a temp job (6 months). They have usps, ups, dhl, I think airborne and on demand charter. Ill have a usps route, i think it pays almost 500/week, flying about 50 hours per month. Beats instructing.

supsup

 

[Newbee]

Caravan Pay

I am the Chief pilot for a small corporation in Northern Cal. We fly a Grand Caravan with exec. interior all part 91. I would think 35K/yr would be a good number to start with. Everything depends on experience though and It is not unheard of to pay 45K for a qualified and competent captain. PM me if you want any more info.