Originally Posted by
dr dre
I don't know why peeps here are arguing about the opportunity to get a $720k AUD job, which would be a senior Captain after many years of service at a US Major airline. The Majors aren't taking E3's, will probably never take E3's and from some reports on the other thread some of the US regionals are now starting to limit E3 hiring. Maybe make some money with Atlas but rosters will be brutal.
The big money overseas that Australians with jet experience would be eligible for in future years are more communing style contracts to Asia or permanent positions in the M/E. You would be earning more but not $720k AUD equivalent, and you'd be working hard and spending a lot of time away from home.
So best to try and improve T&C's and career paths in this country.
The $720k Aud is an interesting argument for a number of reasons. Firstly when have you ever heard of a 737 pilot earning $720k Aud? You can even compare apples with apples, a senior Virgin 737 Captain does the exact same job but earns a fraction of a delta/American pilot salary. The gap has never been this wide so it is very much worth the discussion.
As for foreign pilots flying in the US, I personally know a dozen Aussie pilots who have left Alliance, Cobham, Ek recently to take up the new lucrative jobs in USA.
Also, the captain wages are worth discussing because time to command is so low. With unfilled command vacancies recently in the US, you only need to serve the 18 month probation period before a command is a very real possibility.
As for needing our conditions in Australia to improve, well that will only be helped by default as supply for Aussie jobs dry up due to pilots heading to the US, so I’m all discussing and highlighting these new huge wages in the US. It really is unprecedented and worth the discussion, I’d be nervous if I were a stingy CEO of an australian airline.