Not a mint but
JB007,
Nobody expects the same pay on a Q400 as on a 737 however you have to ask why SFO's on the 195 earn £37k plus £2k flight pay and Captains earn £59k plus £2k flight pay when these figures are at least £20k higher even at Easyjet, never mind BA on an Airbus 319 which has similar capacity.
Then we also have to factor in that a Flybe Q400 pilot flies 5 days (20 sectors) a month more than Easyjet, so currently that makes up for some of the fact that our seat capacity on the Q400 is only 65-70% of that of a 319.
Then factor in the fact that a Q400 burns probably 2/3 the fuel of a 319 on a similar leg, yet the fare charged will be the same per rpk or probably even more. I think you could say that Flybe are raking it in!!
The Flybe CEO earns £400 000 a year, compared with £674 000 for Willie Walsh at BA, which is roughly 60% of the BA CEO salary. His Flybe share options will however exceed £50 million when the company lists on the stock market, so taken over the past 5 years his total remuneration will exceed that of the BA CEO by many multiples - indeed a factor of ten probably!!!
I think the staff at Flybe (which grew revenue over 8% last year) deserve rather more than a 2% pay rise for their efforts.
Incidentally while SFO upgrade at Easy is a £10k uplift in salary it's £500 at Flybe and you have to stump up £250 to unfreeze your licence yourself for the privilege.
This airline has shown remarkable success in recent years, it could be a fantastic place to be IF management started to reward staff in line with the company's success. We are all tremendously enthusiastic about what has been achieved and what Flybe can do in the next ten years, however the Lancashire mill owner attitude towards workers of late is losing goodwil - and they have always been more important than anything in successful business.
DP