pay for a captain at a regional

[cheezpilot]

It seems SkyWest has a good working relationship with it management and should be a model for other management. Unfortunately other managements don't want to keep employees happy and pay them and reward them for hard work. The first thing that gets cut is the bonus pay for making profits and working hard. Unions breed lazyness and disgruntled workers. I know we get more pay for the CRJ than Skywest but lose the extra pay to union dues so the pay is even. On the flip side, if Skywest management were to change its tune and wanted to cut pay, it would be no problem. Unions prevent this. This is the way I understand it. Skywest provides a good product and if we want to make more money we need to start providing a superior product. From the pay scales I have seen for SkyWest they are not underpaid compared to other regionals so scabbing does not apply. I wish I could get they pay and not pay union dues but unions are a necessary evil to keep most companies honest. Sorry, this is all over the place.

 

[English]

No disrespect intended, eaglefly...but turboprop wages at Eagle are "industry average". Fifth year Saab captain at Eagle is around $47...my buddy at SkyWest is making more than that in his fourth year as a Brazilia captain. Plus, he is going into the CRJ next month (which he could have held a year ago)...isn't RJ upgrade at Eagle running at eight years?

It doesn't matter what the intent of the contract was for the pilots, the reality is that it provides for "industry average" in just about everything. And yes, I have read the contract, I'm an ex-eagle pilot.

 

[Gottafly74]

Fellas,

I wont get in the arguments about Unions but for the guy looking for info on Pay.

Id say average for my co. is about 60,000 /yr plus or minus a few.

Hopefully that will change soon for the next contract which we just started negotiating on.

Personally Im in the training Dept. and must say that we dont do too bad( in the mid 80's) for straight pay with no extras.(PD, OT)

That should be the pay for the line pilots as well IMHO.

S. Reddy
ERJ Check Airman
ExpressJet Airlines

 

[eaglefly]

English....That is the point of the greivances. The IAI is being manipulated by the company to their advantage and for now the Eagle scales remain in the middle of the industry. All involved (except AMR) recognize the faliure of the 16-year contract. You're only as good as your elected reps and in '97, Eagle pilots had the taliban as reps.

 

[PilotOnTheRise]

If you want to make decent money with a regional, get on with a well established regional. Go with ASA, ACA, SkyWest ... and believe it or not, you know what the best paying regional from what I hear is ... yes, you guessed it ... Piedmont, and they only fly Dash 8's. Dont look at the aircraft type and judge pay, do some research, you will find that you can get some good paying jobs. Airlines from what I hear to avoid are Eagle and CoEx on the top of the list. They hire people with little to no time and pay for that as well.

 

[cheezpilot]

Might want to do some homework on the Piedmont thing unless you are talking about turbo-prop FO pay exclusively.

 

[ATRCA]

Jet Pilot Chris,

You said:

"Airlines from what I hear to avoid are Eagle and CoEx on the top of the list. They hire people with little to no time and pay for that as well."

I can't speak for Eagle, but I can shed some light on the situation at CoEx.

I upgraded in 13 months on the ATR. My second year ATR CA pay is $46.06 an hour. Our contract is 4 years old and we just exchanged openers with the company on our new contract. I dont know to many folks at other regionals who were making $46 and hour their second year building PIC turbine time while doing so.

As far as your comment about our new hire experience, the avg new hire has about 1500/300. Not a great deal, but not on the bottom of the scale either. I think you should do a little research before you post next time.

BTW, did I mention we are taking delivery of 5 RJs a month the remainder( 8 EMB 145XR's in OCT) of this year and all of next year. We have a total of 163 ERJ's and 20 ATR's. If thats some place to stay away from then by all means stay away. Good luck with your job search.

No place is perfect, but there are far many worse than CoEx than there are better. I have 18 days off this month and I've been at the company 2 1/4 yrs. Ask a 2 yr ACA guy how many days of he/she has.

Compare a little next time before you post.

 

[RichO]

Just curious, so did COEX ever figure out it's interviewing/hiring practices, or is it still using the 8-ball?

 

[ATRCA]

Rich,

I have no idea what formula is used to determine who is hired and who is not. I have some good freinds who were good pilots who were not hired at CoEx. Thats just the way it works. All have found other jobs and are happy with thier situsations.

The folks that seem to complain the most are those who were turned down. Don't take it personally, rejection is part of the industry.

I can assure you that the "8-ball" is not part of the process. Sounds like you had a bad experience here. Sorry, thats the way it goes. I'm sure your doing just fine now.

 

[RichO]

Oh, actually I really never had an experience with COEX, I've had friends that were trying to get on with them and could never figure out what COEX looks for when it comes to inviting people to interviews and hiring........

 

[PilotOnTheRise]

ATRCA-

You are right, I do need to research I guess. What I am saying is more what Ive heard from some people, rather than actually seeing it myself. There are a few things that maybe you can clear up for me that can make me feel better about CoEx ....

1) What is starting FO pay? Ive heard it is $15-16K
2) What is the aircraft that most new hires are assigned?
3) Also, what is average upgrade time to captain?

-Thanks

P.S - I was by no means trying to bash CoEx, I would feel privilaged to fly for them.

 

[ATRCA]

Chris,

1. New hire pay right now (were not hiring, our contract is 4 yrs old) is $19.54 an hr.

2. All new hires are/will be hired into the EMB-145. The ATR is the only prop we have left and they are on there way out. Rumor has is that we may begin hiring early next year. We still have folks on furlough however the company says recalls will begin soon.

3. Upgrade time is hard to figure. When we begin hiring, I would imagine upgrade time will be about 2 yrs conservatively. Right now we have 330 CAL mainline pilots flying at Express. They have temporarily altered the senority list. The most junior RJ capt. right now is a Jan/2000 hire.

There are goods and bads at all companies. ASA, ACA, Air Wisconsin, SkyWest, CMR are all great companies and I think most would be satisfied with any of those. I just thought your comments were a little off the mark. Good luck.

 

[MartinFierro]

...believe it or not, you know what the best paying regional from what I hear is ... yes, you guessed it ... Piedmont, and they only fly Dash 8's. Dont look at the aircraft type and judge pay, do some research, you will find that you can get some good paying jobs.

True, they pay at the top for turboprops. The thing is, as you said, they only fly props. As jet pay is higher across the board than turboprop pay, you miss out in the long run on possibly getting that.

Airlines from what I hear to avoid are Eagle and CoEx on the top of the list. They hire people with little to no time and pay for that as well.

I will agree that prospective pilots should stay away from Eagle. But what is your basis for the low-time jab???? Very poor taste. Are you actually an airline pilot? If so, have you actually flown with a low-timer at an airline? Do you know any? To say what you said just out of the stigma that some people hold against low-timers is quite irresponsible.

Yes, I admit to being a low-timer. I for one am grateful for my opportunity. Please enlighten this furloughed Eagle pilot as to how low-timers cost Eagle or hurt Eagle, as you say? Any first-hande knowledge?

 

[PilotOnTheRise]

I never said or meant for it to come across that Eagle or CoEx were hurt by the low time hiring. What I meant by that is .. you can tell the difference sometimes, paywise, based on the experience of the pilots being hired. A pilot being hired at an airline with minimums of 700TT is not going to be paid as well as a pilot hired by a airline with high minimums. I have seen that CoEx and Eagle both, as well as others hire people with times around there ... not all the time, but Ive seen it more than once. I was wondering if the pay reflected any of that, that is why I asked ATRCA what the pay was. I guess an example are airlines like Commutair, etc that have very low minimums ... I havent seen that they can pay 20-23/hr for their first year. There is nothing wrong with being a low time pilot and being hired by an airline. It is a great opportunity and didnt realize I said that.

I hope you see what I meant / was asking --
Chris

 

[MartinFierro]

OK. I see what you were trying to say.

However, keep in mind that one of the first airlines to hire low-time pilots was actually ASA. In fact, ASA, up until September, was hiring pilots with as little as just over 200 hours TT. So the correlation between hiring low-timers and pay may not necessarily go hand-in-hand.