Parabellum,
Like you say, the debate on LH pay is an interesting one...
I prefer to look at it this way. No doubt, as you allude to, you did when you flew the 73!
Lets assume your 744 pilot has 20 yrs experience on the fleet, flying 10 sectors/month (by all accounts that would be high so my friends tell me), with an average crew complement of 3.
That makes 800 approaches per crew member over 20 years.
In the last 3 weeks I have flown 56 sectors. No doubt this will not continue, but if it did, I make that 970 sectors/approaches this year, of which, presumably, I'll be PF for half.
So in less than 2 years my PF exposure to a CFIT incident/accident is greater than that of a 744 pilot who has been on the fleet for 20 years. Which means in 4 years, I'll have more exposure to potential CFIT than a 744 veteran with 40 years on type!
In addition, they neither spend more time in the seat than me (we're all flying ~900hrs/year these days), nor do they transport more passengers per
day than me...
About the only thing they do more of, is cross multiple time zones, log time in the bunk and be away from home!
And their autopilot(s) have a rudder channel!
Whilst I am quite happy to accept I may represent a majority of one, elevated LH pay is a legacy of the past (ref.
TooFast), which evolved long before the days of deregulation, Southwest, MOL, Stelios and the LOCO.
Its a shame it persists because it is yet another restriction on the freedom of employee movement within our industry.
The fact that Southwest pilots (and ostensibly Ryanair pilots if you've got the right contract?) are some of the best paid pilots around lends a credence to my argument perhaps?
And as for the differences in weather (or ATC for that matter) requiring an elevated level of concentration, Europe (my sphere of reference) is a big place.
Scandanavian weather isn't that far removed from Alaskan weather, central European weather mirrors some aspects of continental American weather, and so, and so forth....
Onwards and upwards.
