Pilots have been portrayed as overpaid primadonnas who really don't work that hard. The reality, however, is that over the last few decades, terms and conditions have only gone downhill: pilots work harder than ever, and in the summer months are often pushed to the legal, physical, and mental limits.
Competition is cut-throat. For airlines to stay afloat, they are forced to squeeze their workforce and pay them as little as they can get away with.After the recession in 2008, there was a general ‘tightening of the belts’ across all airlines. Pilots and cabin crew were asked to be 'realistic' and accept this race to the bottom as some kind of natural law. A weak recovery followed. Profit margins were restored – £2 billion in the case of BA. But this all went to shareholders and upper management. The belt remained tightened.