Hawk Circle and others who are interested. These are excerpts of PMs that I have sent to people recently to answer questions about pay and progression.
First year pay is a little hard to calculate accurately as it depends a little on aircraft type, what our divisor (scheduled flying hours) is for each 8 week period and so on. There are slightly different increases year on year for each aircraft too.
As an absolute base minimum, as at 1 Jul 17 a 787 S/O will earn $105K. The 787 rates go up 2% a year for 4 years. The annual 3% pay rises we tend to get will be in addition to this 2% so effectively 5% a year for the first 4 years.
An A330 S/O in the first year will earn $95K. Based on current hours though the 330 S/O will earn an extra $10K- if not more. The S/O rate jumps up by 7% the first half of the 2nd year, and then another 16.5% in the second half of the second year then 3% a year after that. The annual 3% pay rises that we tend to get are on top of this so you're essentially getting a 6% pay rise each year after year 2.
Allowances will add a little bit on top of that- perhaps $15-20K depending on your trips and work rate.
The big unknown over the next few years is progression off the 787 or A330 as S/Os onto the 744 or A380. The overtime on both those fleets can add an additional 30-40%. Of course if the flying mix changes on those fleets- particularly the A380 then that could change things considerably.
If you want to get out of the back seat ASAP then the 737 is likely to be the only short term promotion available. The 737 has bases in all the state capitals around Australia except TAS and NT but don't expect to earn much more than you will be earning as a 5-6 year S/O on the 787 or A330.
Future progression? There are 400 pilots currently on long haul fleets (out of 1300 total) who hit 65 within the next decade- although only 100 or so in the next 5 years with 300 in the five years after that.
I have no visibility of demographics of the 600ish pilots on SH fleets. Anyone else? Is there a SH bid book equivalent?
Anyway, hope that assists.