Originally Posted by
VH-RME
I would suggest it is a fallacy to directly compare AUD vs USD salaries outright. They are two separate job markets (though somewhat linked via the E-3). Not at all suggesting things in Aus can't and shouldn't be improved, but salaries in the US are markedly higher in a lot of fields outside aviation, such as finance and tech. I wouldn't expect Australia to be able to match these dollar for dollar in the near future
To answer the above question, I'm a current E-3 pilot I would pick Qantas over any of the current E-3 carriers. Would I take Qantas over a US legacy? Gonna be a tough choice
I also personally strongly prefer living Australia over the US, if this is not the case for you then your answer will probably be different
I don’t buy the logic that because airlines in the US are bigger companies than Qantas they can afford to pay their crew more. Pilots aren’t involved in sales or any other direct revenue stream (unlike tech and finance) so it comes down to how productively someone else can utilise our services. Qantas does a pretty good job of extracting near max hours out of its crew and in selling max seats (at extremely high prices of late) per flight. US carriers aren’t getting any better value out of their crew, they are just getting crunched by a labour shortage- which seems to be cropping up here too. As long as there isn’t too much political interference market forces should have a similar outcome here. Of course, thwarting the market is AJ’s main job but there are natural limits.