Posted on 13th Jan
My year 1 average take home was 3200ish
That's after pension, loss of licence, flying staff recreation club etc.
Also be aware that I was on the Airbus at Gatwick where we were a bit workshy - although not by our own choosing. Between my medical 2009 and 2010 I flew about 350 hours!
I would say that 3400 would be a realistic figure for an FO at LHR in Y1.
Out of interest, Y2 for me was about the same as Y1. But Y3 is so far about 3800 (I've moved to LHR now). There's been plenty of overtime of late. Hourly overtime rate for a Y1 FO is about 40 quid plus allowances (£9 per hour) and FDP (£2.87 from check-in to 'release') - sounds good but beware DEPs Mr Osborne likes his 50%.
IMHO - re the wage its good as long as you don't have a penchant for big watches, fast cars and even faster women. But hey where's the fun in that.....
Again, because I know so called journalists trawl this site. Some numbers for perspective! Please take these with a pinch of salt.
Lets say I worked 250 days last year and did 4 sector days thats 1000 flights.
Now lets say that each flight had 100 people on it, thats 100,000 passengers that I was partially responsible for - I say partially because ultimate responsibility lies legally with my four striped colleague.
My take home pay was (last year) say 3200ish X 12 months = ~ £38000
£38000 / 100,000 lives = I looked after each life for the cost of about 40 pence each.
Guys and gals, get your logbooks out and do some number crunching over a cup of coffee - its quite an eye opener.
Hear endeth the lesson....