Flight deck positions at FlyDubai Master Thread - Merged

[ex-XL]

With respect to earnings, most of their pilots remain a long way short of the 80 block hours per month which was suggested at both the interview and being advertised upon their recruitment web page:

• Captain - Variable flying pay (based on working an 80-hour month) AED 12,000
• FO - Variable flying pay (based on working an 80-hour month) AED 8,000

For the avoidance of doubt, the “80-hour month” being referred to means ’80 Block-to-Block hours’ and not ’80 Flight Duty Period hours’.

Their ratio of 'Flight Duty Period' to 'Block Hours' flown is such that 80 block hours per month should considered as the absolute maximum that can be flown in a month at flydubai. Basically, by the time that you have flown 80 block hours in your month, you are nudging along just under the 100 hours in 28 days Flight Duty Period limit.

The present reality is that their pilots are barely up to 50 block hours per month.

This shortfall in block hours has had a substantially negative impact upon their pilots take home pay. Putting it into real numbers, if the status quo on block hours flown remains as is, and there is no reason to assume it will change any time soon, the shortfall in predicted annual earnings equates to approximately USD $12,250 for a Captain, and USD $8,150 for a FO.
So subtract these from the figures quoted on the flydubai website and you might be closer to the mark on the earnings that each rank is actually achieving.

For those who might not be aware of it, Flydubai now has two pay scales for flight crew and new hires will join and stay on a ‘B’ scale package.
The basic monthly ‘B’ scale salary for a flydubai FO is 17,000 Dhs and for Captain is 23,500 Dhs. [ Dhs 3.7 = USD 1 ]

Putting that in to perspective, the basic starting salary for an Etihad FO is 25,480 Dhs per month. That just happens to be the same basic salary an ‘A’ scale Captain at flydubai.
The Eithad pilot also gets a quite generous annualised salary increment, which a flydubai pilot does not.

Much as they might not like to hear it, it is highly probable that those who have joined flydubai as an ‘A’ scale FO will go on to become a Captain on the ‘B’ scale, as their promotion will present an opportunity for the management to move them on to the lower scale of T&Cs, no doubt using the standard management tactic of “well take it or leave it”?!

It could well be suggested that, in order to attract pilots, flydubai flight ops management has not been quite as honest as they should have been about projected earnings, as cited on their web site or during the interview process.