One of the Avianca pilots union (over half of the total pilots) are looking for pay parity with other Avianca divisions such as Avianca Brazil together with improved conditions. They are looking for a 60% increase in salaries. 700 pilots are involved.
The national press published salary ranges which suggested that Avianca pilots were better paid than other local airlines such as Copa (Colombia) and Vivacolombia. The information seemed misleading to me as the other airlines only have 320s and 737s whereas of course Avianca has much larger aircraft such as the 330s and 787s which should have explained the higher numbers.
Local salaries in Colombia are low. The minimum wage (which over half the population earns or earns less than) is $250 a month. Doctors here earn $1,000 a month. In comparison with those numbers the pilot salaries are high (say up to $5k) but obviously are very low by international standards.
Avianca is wanting the strike deemed illegal so that it can fire pilots and replace them with international ones. They already have approval to hire a limited number of non local pilots, however that would hardly seem a cheap solution. They say they have 1800 applicants which again amazes me given the shortage of pilots globally.
The Union has made various suggestions including setting up a low cost airline. That seems unlikely to me.
Avianca are cancelling about half of their flights each day and are limiting new bookings to consolidate flights. They say they are losing about $2 million a day.
Given the amount -in local terms pilots make - there’s not a huge wave of public sympathy. The government has pushed the two parties into arbitration but for me that weighs the dice against the pilots. The government has NO interest in having groups of workers demanding international parity on wages. The country, which is only just coming off the back of some significant inflation created by the fall of oil and the resulting devaluation of the peso can’t afford it.
Avianca pilots, like others in the country earn their wages. The weather can be changeable, there are plenty of high altitude airports and some approaches are challenging. The last offer from the company was around a 12% increase but that was pulled in hours when it was not immediately accepted.
I’ve heard no suggestion that other Avianca workers are supporting the pilots or that any planned action will take place when the first of the new hire international pilots arrive at the beginning of November.