Tailwheel – seeing that you asked me nicely I’ll take the opportunity to clarify a few items. And no, I’m not Reality Bites – I post under my own name.
All new starts at Jetcraft have been employed on AWAs since June 2006. AWAs have given us a chance to put in place a pay structure that rewards those who fly more. This is done through a flight pay system which pays those on AWAs a base salary plus an amount per flight hour. I believe this is a much fairer system, particularly for night freight pilots who aren’t catered for very well under the GA Award allowance system.
I don’t believe our conditions have been reduced. In fact I spent a fair bit of time designing the AWA structure to ensure they weren’t. I am sure other people will have their opinions on this which is fine. I have negotiated plenty of AWAs in the last 6 months without bursting into tears or attacking anyone because they disagreed with me.
While I am spruiking my wares; all Jetcraft pilots are bonded. We seem to be one of the few companies left who don’t charge for endorsements these days.
We are far from the perfect employer but I think we do ok.