Let’s sit down and see how much weight that statement of your’s carries,
Tape It Shut, using approximate figures for VX (a fictitious airline) pilots, and an $89 airfare on a 1 hour flight.
Captain’s salary…$160k
F/O’s salary……..$100k
Total = $260k.
Assuming each pilot flies only 75 hours per month (and, in fact it’s considerably more I believe for this fictitious VX airline) – that is 150 hours for both pilots per month.
Taking out some vacation, and sick leave, and also training/checking simulator, let’s say they return 10 out of 12 months productivity. Total flight time 1,500 hours p.a.
Divivding the (pre-tax) figure of $260k by 1500, that works out at $346.70 per hour for BOTH pilots.
Okay, VX isn’t running full every sector – as a matter of fact they are averaging only a 60% load factor on a 150 seat aircraft, so that’s 90 seats per flight.
Dividing the TOTAL crew cost of $346.70/hour by 90 pax that works out at $3.85 for each passenger for a 1 hour flight – approximately
4% of the total ticket price.
On a load factor of 80% - 120 pax – the cockpit crew salary cost now drops to $2.88 per passenger per hour – about
3.2% of the ticket price, and whith the aircraft chockers, only
2.3% on the CHEAPEST TICKET.
