Let’s look at the numbers, these figures came from -
http://www.pilotjobsnetwork.com/oper...php?reg=Europe
Britain’s Favourite Airline Package (2018 figures)
Basic Salary: First Officer (FO) salary Short-Haul (SH) Lvl 1 £58,846 to Lvl 24 £111,507 (annual increments). First Officer (FO) salary Long-Haul (LH) Lvl 1 £58,846 to Lvl 24 £131,542. Capt salary Short-Haul (SH) Lvl 1 £78,462 to Lvl 24 £125,271. Capt salary Long-Haul (LH) Lvl 1 £78,462 to Lvl 24 £175,393.
Flight or Sector Pay: £10.34/block hour for both Capts and FOs (average 900hrs per year = £9,306).
Duty Pay: £3.52/hr away (900 hrs = £3,168).
Pension: BARP2 = 15% company contribution plus mandatory 6% employee contribution.
Leave: 6 weeks (Saturday to Saturday) with 3x ‘wrap days’ either before or after each week. Can be a 2 week block. Restriction of 1 week over busy summer period and also set for 12 months ahead each October. Those with 6 years or more seniority get priority in leave plot.
Roster: Varies according to SH/MH/LH and fleet but is issued the month before around 3 days before the start of the month. Normally SH is 6on (inc 1-2 standby) 3off and LH is normally 3x LH trips a month with at least 4 days down-route plus 1-2 standby duties.
Other Things To Consider: Time to captaincy >15 years for A380, B777 and B747. A320 captaincy faster for experienced FOs joining the company and may be as quick as 5-8 years. Death in service 3x salary.
Also, have a read about this regarding time off -
https://blog.balpa.org/Blog/October-...alance-Pilot-A
Then consider what you get as a senior Flt Lt or junior Sqn Ldr around an option point. Around £65k a year salary, a rented house for between £200-£350 a month (I have a mate who lives in a 4-bed detached quarter near Marlow and he pays £170 a month - you couldn’t rent a garage for that! He has a house that rents too in order to stay on the property market), free dental/med, free gym, access to a subsidised ‘Club’ (aka Mess), access to school fees if required and the crowing glory is that pension. Recently the Govt Actuary Dept valued AFPS15 as worth 59% of your salary - that you don’t pay for. The Airline pension schemes get no-where near this figure. So you need to pull in the ‘entire package’ when you compare - it’s not just cash in your pocket at the end of the month. It is possible to make the RAF ‘offer’ work as long as you can put up with the ‘death by a 1000 cuts’ - which is why I constantly go on about that.
I agree with BV and others, something needs to be done to stop paying people to leave at 38/40 points, and there is the PAS transfer bonus for Flt Lts at that point but not a lot else.
