The benefits of virgin

[squire]

Although the subject leaves me wide open, just wondering if any ozzies have feedback on the benefits to the aviation community of virgin entering your market pending there arrival in NZ.
Disadvantages also welcome whats ur feel after some time passing, it would seem all roses but ...............:suspect:

[Z Force]

Probably good for the consumer but they threaten ALL airline employee's wages and conditions unlike those other two successful low cost airlines Southwest and Ryanair who look after their employee's with respectable renumeration.

[BCF Breath]

I didn't think RyanAir paid that well. I do know they work the a#$e of their staff though.

[Wizofoz]

A Ryanair Captain NETS around 60K Sterling. Thats $150K AUD IN THE HAND.

Yes you work hard for it.

[CT7]

Can you make the same exchange rate assumption given the different costs of living in "Down Under" and Europe?

ie, is it a really good salary in the European scheme of things??
Or would it be = to say 130K down here?

Honest question.

[redsnail]

£60K is a good salary but not sensational. You'd still be hungry if you were living in London or the SE of England but every where else you'd be ok. It doesn't compare to $150K in let's say Perth or Cairns. BA Captains on a similar size aircraft earn £70-80K plus travel allowances etc. Some charter mobs do pay less but you get a lot more time off.
Before you go nuts over Ryanair remember a few things. They do charge to read your CV and do the interview. (I think they reimburse that fee upon selection). For new folk with no rating you effectively pay for it. You don't get paid whilst doing the groundschool and you only get flight pay whilst doing the line training. You do work very very hard for your money, much harder than in Oz and with a lot less "benefits" and "essentials" that we expect in Oz. Remember, Ryanair are an Irish company so pay in Euros and aren't monitored by the UK CAA. Seems to be a less transparent company, easyJet on the other hand don't seem to hide behind smoke screen figures.
The 737 rating in JAR land is about £20-25K depending. An FO will earn maybe £35-39K. Compare that with VB's $19-20K and ~$65K for the FO.
Plus side. Fast commands. Seems to be a reasonably stable roster.

[Sperm Bank]

Gday reddo. I don't think the Ryanair guys work nearly as hard as we do down here. When I was in europe less than 2 years ago they just reduced their weekly duty hours from 55 to 45, they don't do ANY overnights, no back of the clock flying and have the most stable rosters I have ever seen. 5 earlys, 3 off, 5 lates, 3 off. The Irish guys were paid Euros, the lads in the UK pounds sterling. Along with their stock options it was a damn good package. They always knew exactly how to plan their lives, something we can not do down here. Agreed London is a very expensive place to live, but who would? (besides the 12 million who already do).

They work hard in terms of sectors flown. The max I heard of was 6 in a day. We get to do five a day down here over longer sectors. I am trying not to be biased but across the board we work damned hard down here, and were told the other day we are the most productive pilot's in the western world in terms of stick hours per month. The closet to us was Southwest.

Southwest and Ryanair do I believe look after their troops very well.

[EPIRB]

I'm not trying to get into a slinging match with you Spermy and I don't want this to become a Virgin versus Qantas argument, but who told you that? It's just that IATA have said that the QF domestic pilots are the most productive.

[Wizofoz]

redsnail,

All true, but that's 60k NET, or the equivelant of around 100K pre tax (They pay a lot of duty pay which is only part-taxable.) Like I said, that's 150K AUD. To net that you'd have to earn around 280k gross, which I don't think even QF 744 drivers are on at the moment.

London is hellishly expensive, but their bases are Stansted and Luton, and therefore you can live well out of the city where things are a lot more affordable.

While it certainly is difficult to compare salaries vs COL, there is still no doubt the low costs here pay good wages, in contrast to the third world wages being offered by Jet Connect and Freedom (and we'll see about PB!). I think they'll find retention a big problem before long.

[Sperm Bank]

EPIRB you may well be right mate. Our senior management attended some conference and were advised of these stats. Perhaps they are just trying to soften us up, who knows? Our F/O's are not working overly hard at present with all the training going on however the skippers are up around the 75 to 85 (and more) per month mark (that is the yearly average).

How does that compare with you guys?

[Keg]

Spermie, same, same. The divisor has dropped a little of late (starts at about 70ish per month) but that is more a hassle of rostering the NG different to the classics or so I'm led to believe. Mate of mine averages about 80 a month.

[Foreign Worker]

What is the tax situation with Ryanair? Is tax paid anywhere, or is that question better left alone?