As an FO I was averaging 92 hrs a month and raking in £3700 net.
And here we see the truth.
If you were
averaging 92 hours a month then that works out to a maximum number of months you could work is less than 9.5 months. Anyone who could sustain and average of 92.5 hours a month for 9.5 months of the year would certainly need the other 2.5 months for recuperation.
So, £3700 net for 92 hours a month average works out to 9.5 x £3700 = £35150 a year. You claim that that amount is net so we can work that out to be approximately £43000 a year before tax. Hmmm, that certainly isn't what I would call fantastic pay, especially since you haven't deducted all the extras such as uniform, medicals, pension, food, LOL, various other insurances and health schemes etc. that the rest of us expect as part of a normal package. Let's be generous and and say that they only come to £3000, then your £40k (how much of that is pensionable is open to debate) doesn't seem so fantastic any more.
Before the non-pilot enthusiasts who haunt this site such as eal401 jump in, the flight duty hours quoted above are not the same as duty hours. I won't waste my time explaining that to failed wannabe types such as eal401 but if obi was averaging 92 flight duty hours per month then he was most certainly running at close to the maximum duty hours, especially on multi sector days. Probably around 2.5 x flight hours if you include standby duties which would equate to
53 hours a week. I'll bet that those failed wannabe types don't put in 53 hours a week every week until they are fatigued. They just see a salary of around £3.7k a month and compare that to their paltry 9-5 desk job and jump to conclusions.
No, averaging 92 flight duty hours a month must make O'Leary very happy as it is so close to the legal maximum and therefore very productive. The fact that the pilot can only work a maximum of 9.5 months at that rate must infuriate O'Leary as that is the legal maximum but not very productive as far as he is concerned. Any pilots who work those kind of hours, as has been admitted by Obi, cannot do so for a very long time as they are truly exhausting. What Obi has failed to state is that the 2.5 months he has to sit at home because he has reached the maximum legal number of flight duty hours he can fly in a year, he has no income and therefore he should really have explained that the £3700 a month he was
"raking in" had to cover him for the time he wasn't flying.
I think that most jet pilots prefer to work for companies that at least show some care of duty towards their employees even if it means that they take the burden of having to do every little thing such as supply a uniform, food, medicals etc. They also tend to offer a salary that includes leave payments and flight duty pay. For O'Leary to claim that his pilots are the best paid is nothing but a pure and unadulterated lie. Unfortunately, the media love him because he spends a lot of money advertising with them and he's just so controversial when he makes statements. Because of that they are in awe of him and so are many aspiring jet pilots. They actually believe the blarney!
RYanair pilots, as has been shown above are not the best paid. In fact, if you work it out, they are worked extremely hard. Nothing wrong with that except that failed wannabes are ignorant of what such long flight duty hours month in and month out can do to your health.