but did I understand correctly (From your post) that it takes 18 months to convert a foreign licence to a Canadian one?
That's not what I said. The conversion is pretty quick. If you meet all the license requirements, it can be done inside a couple of days. Up to a month if you have some hours to polish off.
The 18 months is about when I would expect you to be hired in the current climate if the economy takes off again. All airlines in Canada have laid pilots off and most charter companies are in the process of doing so too. Any of the unionized pilots (read, the airlines) must be offered their jobs back before the company can hire pilots off the street. So although you've transferred your license in a day or two, it'll be at least year and a half before you'll find a job. In fact, a recent
IATA report seemed to suggest that it will be mid-2021 before domestic flying is back to what it was and possibly as long as 2025 before international traffic is back up, so my 18 months could be
very optimistic. It would not surprise me at all if many airlines don't hire another pilot until 2025. I hope I'm wrong, but certainly don't plan on getting hired in 2020.
+TSRA I just read your post in the Air Canada section but those were many years ago. Does 53,000 CAD for a A320 FO still hold good in 2020 ?
just trying to understand what the pay grade is vs other occupations ...... I Asia we are in the top 10 to 15 % (for salaried earners)
cheers
Roughly the same, but I'm not an AC pilot so I get the info second hand.
The mean after-tax income in 2018 was $61,400, so any pilot earning over $83,500 before tax is doing average. It would take you around 4 years to earn above that at most airlines if you were not picking up overtime or counting things like per diems, which is a touchy subject I've come to find. It's generally been my experience that pilots are poorly paid in their first 10 years in the industry and then paid very well thereafter when compared to the average, equally educated individual. With that said, Canadian pilots are still paid well below their international comparators, so if you're comparing us against an Asian carrier, it's a rude surprise for sure.