PPRuNe Forums - View Single Post - Aer Lingus now recruiting Direct Entry F/O's
Old 16th Nov 2010, 07:07
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MCDU2
 
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The year 1 FO salary WAS 57,888.20EUR on the latest payscale. I say was because last year when the company was allegedly going bust each and every pilot had their salary reduced by 10% across the board and salary frozen. The most junior FO's were hit the hardest as their current salary is actually less than when they first started 4-5 years ago.

On top of salary you will get sector pay of approximately €8-10k per annum. During summer we were all working our butts off and sector pay cheques were around €1k per month. I don't expect this to continue through the winter as the flying programme is reduced and also with all of the training that will be going on. sector pay is tax free in your hands. My understanding is that the company pays any tax due to the Revenue before you get it.

There is also a thing called variable performance pay. Basically you took the hours you flew in a year less a threshold multiplied by the applicable rate for an FO and hey presto. It was taxable but generally in a good year you got a cheque for about €8-10k paid just before Xmas. Whenever there is a lot of training going on your hours get reduced as sectors will be freed up which hits you in your back pocket. This could be in the form of 330 people coming back onto the A320 or newbies joining the company or any other host of variables such as volcanic ash. BUT there are plans afoot to give back performance pay to the company in return for the increments on our salary scale had we not been frozen. Remember that the final salary is predicated on funnily enough your final salary. Having this frozen has a negative impact on your pension as it reduces the amount being paid by AL into the fund. Hence why the union has been so keen to get the annual salary increments back.

There are no loss of licence or any other add ons such as company medical insurance that most other companies pay. We do in DUB and ORK have a final salary pension scheme although who knows what will happen to that in the future. It is currently under funded and we are working longer till retirement. There is also talk of a pension cap. There is a pension regulator in Ireland who has enormous powers and can change the nature of the scheme should he so wish. No one knows what the future will hold in that regard.

I suggest that you find an online tax calculator to work out what your take home could possibly be. Remember the country is effectively bankrupt and there will be the mother of all budgets coming in the next month or so and probably more pain. If you want to live miles away from Dublin then you will probably find the salary okay but if you intend to live within close proximity to the airport in a nice area then expect to pay through the nose and not save anything.
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