Airline pilot salaries in SA

[George Tower]

Just out of interest does any body know what kind of salaries pilots earn with all the major operators in SA (SAA, SA Express, Airlink, Comair/Kulula, and Nationwide etc).

This kind of information is easy to obtain in respect of UK carriers but not so easy in SA. Anyone able to shed any light on the matter?

Cheers

GT

[Yang]

Hi there

I have a fair idea of some of the salaries - hope it might help, but please be advised these are rough estimates of what I hear is being paid. At the time of this reply, 1 USD is about 7 SA Rands (R7)

Monthly Gross salaries plus S & T's:
Airlink: co pilot: R 13 000 Capt: R21 000
Express: Co pilot: R 15 500 Capt: R23 000
Nationwide: Co Pilot: R 10 500, Capt: R18 000
Comair: Co Pilot: R 16 000, Capt: R 26 000


Good luck

[George Tower]

Hi there

Thanks for posting that info. Do you have any idea about the average time to command in respect of each of the carriers. I know someone who is now a captain with Nationwide with not much more than 3000 hours. Admittedly that was a few years ago.

What about about Airlink and Express - I would assume that most of their F/Os are fodder for SAA or do many go on to move over into the LH seat?

Also I'm interested to know if there is much difference in terms of the amount and quality of recurrent training given in respect of each carrier.

Many thanks

GT.

[Barrelroll]

At Nationwide you should get command after about 12 months, provided you have more than 3000 hours TT and a 1000 hrs of jet time, which you will get in 12 months. The Nationwide salary for captains are about R23000 before tax.

At Airlink a few years ago, some guys got command after 3-4 months, but at the moment it is closer to 3-4 years. The command salary there is also about R24000 before tax.

At Express my guess is also 3-4 years and about 5 years to command at Comair. At SAA you will be lucky to get command after 15 years, mainly because you'll get bypassed by affirmos (of course they and specially the union will deny this!)

IMHO, best company in SA to fly for - Comair, followed by SAA if you can live with political issues that will rear its head in the not so distant future.