Majors Pay Rates

[Astra Guy]

Hot off the press at The Atlanta Journal-Constitution:

Pilot's Pay Rates for a 12 year Captain of a Boeing 737 or similar-sized jets:

Delta $245
Northwest $212
Southwest $162
Continental $160
Alaska $158
US Airways $150
American $147
United $147
AirTran $145
JetBlue $136
Frontier $132
America West $120

"Employee wages and benefits are alines' largest expense -- about 40 percent of revenues. Pilot compensation accounts for up to a third of labor expenses."

It appears the jig is up or soon to be up at Delta and Northwest.

 

[80drvr]

Hot off the press at The Atlanta Journal-Constitution:

Pilot's Pay Rates for a 12 year Captain of a Boeing 737 or similar-sized jets:

Delta $245
Northwest $212
Southwest $162
Continental $160
Alaska $158
US Airways $150
American $147
United $147
AirTran $145
JetBlue $136
Frontier $132
America West $120

"Employee wages and benefits are alines' largest expense -- about 40 percent of revenues. Pilot compensation accounts for up to a third of labor expenses."

It appears the jig is up or soon to be up at Delta and Northwest.

Here's numbers from another source. Looks like they got Continental and Alaska a bit off the mark. Also believe SWA is getting a substantial raise. AA's rates increase ~8% 1 May. ...anyone care to chime in:

B-737-800 & A-320/319
Airline Year 12
AA $142.70
DAL $245.49
NWA $211.70
CO $178.66
UAL $146.50
SW $162.28
US $148.32
Alaska $189.23
ATA $145.25

 

[P3-Adub]

UAL & AMR Majors ?

Who says that UAL has not cut down to compete with the other LCCs ? $140K a year is no small salary however don't think it will stop there. I would say that pilots at UAL and AMR have done their part to save their companies. UAL at one time had 10,500 pilots and now there are around 7K, I would say if you average the salaries of 3000 + pilots at around 100K a year, given low seniority of the furloughees like me, and then the retiring guys making the big $$$, there is over 300 million a year right there in savings, that does not even include benefits. Let us not forget the 30-50% pay cuts the remaining pilots took at UAL. As mentioned before, it is a race to the bottom, if Jet Blue is the lowest, then someone else will come in for even less. Any takers out there to make 80K a year to fly a new Airbus as a captain ? I bet there are thousands of pilots willing. I truely hope Delta and Northwest can hang on and make money with those salaries, that is the only thing that might save a decent career as a major airline pilot in my opinion. I see that airline management would like to villianize the pilots as the root of all financial woes, bet Mr. Branson will pay as little as possible and then they will be the new darling airline in the public's mind. Cannot wait to see some of the Jet Blue folks complaining about having to take pay cuts to stay competative. Truely amazing !

 

[FDJ2]

So a Delta 737-800 cockpit crew might make $100-$130 more per hour than a SWA 737-700 cockpit crew. That's seems like a drop in the bucket considering the hourly cost of operating a 737. However, if that 800's capacity is approximately 15 to 20 pax more than SWA, than all DAL has to do is fill one or two more seats to make up the difference. Pilot costs are a factor, but the business model of an airline does not revolve around pilot costs. If the business model is sound the company will survive, if the business model is flawed, no amount of concessions will save it. Anyone remember how much a Vanguard 737 captain made?

 

[Astra Guy]

Not being an airline type I was not wowed by the hourly rate. What got my attention was the employee cost/revenue %s. In our little operation our total employee cost/flight hour is ~18% of the total costs to operate our aircraft. The hourly rate for employee costs work out to be ~$900/flight hour.

I know this is not apples to apples. What is apples to apples are the employee costs as a percentage of revenue between the winners and the losers.

I don't have a dog in this race. Just an observation from an Economics 101 class.

 

[Indapool]

Also believe SWA is getting a substantial raise.

Southwest

Min Hourly
9/1/2004 180.28
9/1/2005 186.59
9/1/2006 197.82

Max Hourly
9/1/2004 186.26
9/1/2005 199.46
9/1/2006 199.46

All depends upon profitability

 

[airbaker]

JetBlue's rate might be a little off:

I believe it's $136/hr up to 70 hrs., anything over 70 hours is paid at time and a half - $204. So I guess a good composite pay rate would be around $145-$150/hr. flying a typical line.

 

[FLB717]

AAI
5Yr on 4-1-4
717 737-7 737-8
$120, $120 $137

12Yr
717 737-7 737-8
$152, $152, $172

 

[MDP727]

ATA pay per contract

737Capt '04 '05

yr 5 143.48 160.09
yr 12 155.33 187.24

L1011 Capt

yr 5 157.83 167.30
yr12 184.42 195.67

737Fo

yr1 39.00 40.50
yr3 77.13 86.06
yr5 93.26 104.06

L1011Fo
yr3 84.84 94.67
yr5 102.59 114.47

 

[BrownTailGuy]

UPS Rates

Our 12 year Captains make the same no matter what equipment they fly. Their rate is $190 an hoour.

We are looking closely on what kind of cut Delta takes. If it ends up being the 9% like the pilots have offered then we stand to get a good raise in the new contract.