Originally Posted by
Busdriver01
The tabloid headlines of "BA pilots earning £200k reject 11.5% payrise and threaten strike action" are at best disingenuous. I don't work for BA, but I certainly agree with where their workforce is coming from. For a legacy carrier - one which claims to be the worlds favourite and one which is making £2bn profit per year - to be making such blatant attacks on Ts + Cc is downright greedy. Aircrew should be provided with high quality accommodation to ensure adequate rest before making a return flight. This is being attacked. Minimum time down route should not be considered 'target time downroute', but it is.
People like to bash pilots because typically they are earning higher than the average worker and are considered to be doing less actual work. But if you made the average person achieve the competency required of a senior pilot, and add in get up in the dead of night, working in a high altitude, high noise environment for 12+ hours, with the responsibility we carry, I'm sure lots would change their view.
Good luck to my BA counterparts - I feel you may need it.
Many, many years ago as a youngster who had recently entered the aviation business, I had the pleasure of operating as a Loadmaster spending many hours on the flight deck. I did have the opinion then that the Pilots did seem to earn a lot of money compared to us regular employees. I remember asking a very Senior Captain "Why do you get paid such a high salary?"
This question was a genuine one, not meant to demean Pilots in any way, just to find an answer. I'll never forget his succinct reply being "Just pray that you are never on a flight where I have to earn that pay." It took me a while to realise what that meant, but sure enough I was on the flight deck one particular day when at VR, things started to go horribly wrong. The quick response by all three Crew Members certainly saved the day. That's the time when I realised why their pay was "so much." I likened that to a Doctor or any of the Emergency Services people who are not paid for what they do 90% of the time, but for what they know has to do when things go wrong. I always respected Operating Crew but now can easily appreciated that they actually do earn that respect by what they are capable of doing when they need to. Overpaid...certainly not. They may be lucky enough to retire without ever having a situation where they have to save an aircraft, Crew and Passengers but the fact that they could do so if needed is why they should be paid well.