Welcome to Flightinfo.com

  • Register now and join the discussion
  • Friendliest aviation Ccmmunity on the web
  • Modern site for PC's, Phones, Tablets - no 3rd party apps required
  • Ask questions, help others, promote aviation
  • Share the passion for aviation
  • Invite everyone to Flightinfo.com and let's have fun

Hopefully the beginning of the end 4 skybus

Welcome to Flightinfo.com

  • Register now and join the discussion
  • Modern secure site, no 3rd party apps required
  • Invite your friends
  • Share the passion of aviation
  • Friendliest aviation community on the web
I'm not judging Skybus one way or another, but does anybody know what Skybus captains get paid for years 2-10? Is it significantly higher like most airlines or just a small increase?

It looks like $65,000 is more than Spirit, ATA, and Sun Country guarantee their captains on comparable equipment (B737 or A319+) for the first year.

Skybus 1st year A319 CA =$65,000
Spirit 1st year A319 CA =$56,160, A321 CA =$61,344
ATA 1st year 737 CA =$34,200
Sun Country 1st year 737 CA =$26,040, 2nd year 737 CA =$64,680

It's also higher than the regionals.
I know pay should be higher, but it seems their first year pay is not unusually low for smaller airlines in the industry these days.
 
It looks like $65,000 is more than Spirit, ATA, and Sun Country guarantee their captains on comparable equipment (B737 or A319+) for the first year.

Skybus 1st year A319 CA =$65,000
Spirit 1st year A319 CA =$56,160, A321 CA =$61,344
ATA 1st year 737 CA =$34,200
Sun Country 1st year 737 CA =$26,040, 2nd year 737 CA =$64,680

It's also higher than the regionals.
I know pay should be higher, but it seems their first year pay is not unusually low for smaller airlines in the industry these days.

That's only because none of those airlines actually have first year Captains, and they never will. ATA, Sun Country, and Spirit are all ALPA carriers, and ALPA doesn't waste negotiating capital on negotiating for something that will never be a concern. At Skybus, first year Captains are a reality, and they probably will be for some time. I've also heard that second year and on only goes up about 3 percent each year, so it doesn't get much better.
 
I see your point, but all new airlines have first year captains; they have to. If the Skybus pay really only increases by 3% annually, then that is really lousy. I'd be interested in seeing what the actual pay scale is for years 2+.
 
I see your point, but all new airlines have first year captains; they have to.

Yes, and they should be paying normal market rates for it. An average narrowbody payrate for a junior Captain would be somewhere in the range of $120/hr. Skybus is paying just over half of that.
 
yup.....spirit's wages are ridiculously low too.

But anyone else notice Go-jets and Spirit guys on the radio are many times foreign?

There's nothing wrong with being foreign, its that coming over here for a job, you don't have a good idea of what the fair market is.
 
Starting a cheap low cost airline that has reduced employee pay is what Southwest was born from......and look where they are now.

on this forum that HARD FACT will fall on deaf ears.. and ironically some of the loudest critics of Skybus are the JetBlue, Southwest, Airtran (I used to call them Airtrash when I was at ASA) and I have actually seen a Spirit guy jump in on a thread somewhere.. Sprit, that's an ALPA carrier and also pays their 1st years CA's $65/hr, but sadly due to their work rules, even if someone was lucky enough to upgrade that fast, he'd never get the credit hours and days off of a Skybus CA..

Pot meet Kettle... that's what FI.com should be renamed..
 
Sprit, that's an ALPA carrier and also pays their 1st years CA's $65/hr

And if there was even the slightest chance in hell that there would ever be a 1st year CA at Spirit, then that argument might have some merit. But this is the real world. A junior CA at Spirit makes $118/hr.
 
And if there was even the slightest chance in hell that there would ever be a 1st year CA at Spirit, then that argument might have some merit. But this is the real world. A junior CA at Spirit makes $118/hr.

CA or FO, does it really matter in the way airlines are structured today what the title is? An FO at UPS makes more than most CA's at UAL.. so what?

Fact is, with in 1 year at Skybus, you make more than most airlines out there PERIOD.
 
Hate?

It's not hate you liberal little "terd"! Many here have lost their job. Do you think you have the market cornered on that? WE, didn't pay for training, we didn't invest in some 747 operation, and we didn't go to work for some S-"whole" operator like Scuzz-bus. Maybe someday you'll understand, but I doubt it.
 
Rose Bowls since 1976...

Michigan.........14
Ohio State.......3


Predicted score November 17...Michigan 42, Ohio State 3:smash:

All time series:

UM...........57
OSU.........40
Ties.........6

The number of U of M wins will only increase when Les Miles leaves LSU and heads to Michigan. We all know Lloyd Carr is an idiot. OSU will never again dominate the series like they have the last few years. GO BLUE!!!
 
I'm not defending Skybus's pay rates, they're aweful. However to expound on what someone else said earlier in this thread. I'd like to see one of you start a new operation with industry leading payrates. You Can't! and if you did you'd be in Ch11 before you knew it and in Ch 7 soon after. I'll be happy to stand in the court room and say I told you so.
 
I'm not defending Skybus's pay rates, they're aweful. However to expound on what someone else said earlier in this thread. I'd like to see one of you start a new operation with industry leading payrates. You Can't! and if you did you'd be in Ch11 before you knew it and in Ch 7 soon after. I'll be happy to stand in the court room and say I told you so.
I would but I dont have the money to start an airline.
 
Maybe more than regional f/o's..that's about it. It's sad when you can make more as an RJ captain than as a captain at Skybus.

RJ! Hello.. We have Piedmont Capts. on a 37 Seat Dash 8 Prop makes more.

But then again, what is Skybus's yearly pay increase?
 
Last edited:
Let me see if I've got this straight: You major airline pilots did nothing, such as a flow through or preferential hiring, to help the regional guy get to the next level. You did everything in your power to keep regional jets, the very thing that might make a regional airline a viable career option, out of the hands of regional airline pilots. Then you actively participated in the destruction of everything that made a major airline career worthwhile, such as wages, work rules, and pensions, merely so you could save your own careers. Now you guys actually have the nerve to complain when the up-and-coming pilots, the guys you have been screwing for years, start looking at other career options, because of how they affect YOU? Are you insane?
 
I'm not defending Skybus's pay rates, they're aweful. However to expound on what someone else said earlier in this thread. I'd like to see one of you start a new operation with industry leading payrates. You Can't! and if you did you'd be in Ch11 before you knew it and in Ch 7 soon after. I'll be happy to stand in the court room and say I told you so.

No one expects to see industry leading rates. Simply normal market rates, even near the low end, would be fine. Skybus is working for only 1/3rd of what everyone is, and VA is working for 2/3rds. If you can't afford to pay normal wages, then you shouldn't be in business in the first place. How much you wanna bet that the executives are making normal market rates for their management positions?
 
No one expects to see industry leading rates. Simply normal market rates, even near the low end, would be fine. Skybus is working for only 1/3rd of what everyone is, and VA is working for 2/3rds. If you can't afford to pay normal wages, then you shouldn't be in business in the first place. How much you wanna bet that the executives are making normal market rates for their management positions?

who pays an A319 captain on 1st year $270,000?

1/3? Lay down the crack pipe man, and get out and fly... take a Zoloft or two.
 
RJ! Hello.. We have Piedmont Capts. on a 37 Seat Dash 8 Prop makes more.

But then again, what is Skybus's yearly pay increase?


There are no pay increases posted yet..... (for subsequent years)
only promises of something better down the road. Oh yeah stock options......
 
Last edited:
who pays an A319 captain on 1st year $270,000?

1/3? Lay down the crack pipe man, and get out and fly... take a Zoloft or two.






Didn't do so well in math? Last time I checked, 3 times $65,000 didn't come out to 270,000! Try it again, and maybe use a calculator this time...
 
Didn't do so well in math? Last time I checked, 3 times $65,000 didn't come out to 270,000! Try it again, and maybe use a calculator this time...

except the average captain isn't earning the minimum guarantee..

http://airlinepilotcentral.com/airlines/major-national-lcc/skybus.html

but if we were to go with that, then certainly I don't know of any LCC's much less Legacies paying $195,000... as a minimum guarantee on an A319, do you Einstein? Southwest is the closest, but even they fall short (certainly for year 1 pay).

So where is the 1/3 come from? answer... Hyperbole (that's BS for the trailer park residents).
 

Latest resources

Back
Top Bottom