Originally Posted by
Toastal
Hi folks, I've got a DEC selection for one of said Portuguese bases. Can anyone please shed light on the following if it's not too much trouble please;
1. The updated salary is €144500 + 20% in duty pay amounting to €173500 making a monthly take home of £6420 or €6940 after 52% tax, is this accurate?
2. Is it mostly 4 sector days?
3. What is the roster pattern, is it fixed 5/4 or what is the random pattern?
4. Is Oporto the quieter base.
5. Is it mostly Portuguese flight deck?
6. Why are they always struggling for crews?
7. How is the lifestyle there?
8. Are both Lis and Opo secure ezy bases for the future?
All this is based on a knowledge of OPO mainly:
1. Portuguese tax varies depending on whether you're married or not and if you have kids. E.g. Married with 2 kids and your partner NOT working is 33% (plus the 11% social security). But if you're single and no kids then it's 39% (plus the 11% social security). These figures are based on the full time captain salary money. Not all of the money is taxable though. I believe that in Yr1 you'd be looking at €70-75k net on the worst case local tax situation. After 5 years in the company (10% loyalty bonus threshold) with the new CLA you're looking at €80-85k net annually, and with the partner and 2 kids situation you're looking at €90k net. Even then, the Portuguese tax authorities give rebates for you spending money and recording it using your NIF number (to attempt to reduce the cash in hand business) so you can expect a bit more.
2. OPO is mostly 2 sector days on earlies and 4 sector days on lates. LIS is more varied.
3. 5/4 pattern is available when bases fully crewed with no salary reduction. So it's already available in LIS but OPO still needs a good 6+ captains. Flexi roster in OPO leads to most blocks having 3 days off with 3-5 days on. BUT the leave and guaranteed day off systems can be manipulated into giving decent holidays and regular breaks in the work schedule that seem to work nicely for all pilots spending the majority of their time near the base...it's not a great base for commuters.
4. Yes. Because RYR have all the short flights sewn up (LIS, FAO and all of Spain) it means there less room for the roster to be "optimised", where as in LIS the rostering computer can add a MAD or a BOD onto another 2 sectors without much hassle. There are long duties in OPO (11+ hours) but with this comes less actual working days in the plane.
5. Really wide range of nationalities. No current Portuguese captains in OPO and only a handful of Portuguese first officers.
6. The old contract/CLA turned almost everyone off. Even the new one doesn't match up to other airlines and bases in Europe. Only you can decide if €6-7k per month is enough to live on comfortably.
7. In OPO I would say excellent, most pilots not commuting live within 15 minutes of the airport and traffic at the times of work is fairly quiet. Standbys are almost always days off. Hardly any delays (no flights to UK airspace helps). Earliest start is 5am and latest landing is 11.15pm. So all this maximises time away from "work". The weather is of course better in LIS, providing you can handle the hotter summer temps. If mid-high 20's is more your style then OPO is better.
8. If it's making money and it can be crewed then EZY will keep bases open. There are naturally concerns that if OPO constantly struggles to attract captains then it will close, but PAX revenue and loads are excellent.