Spanish ATCOs earning £800,000 two years ago! Anything changed?
 

Hello guys!
I was doing some research and this came to my attention: Newsvine - Spanish air traffic controllers' salaries are 'millionaire salaries'

I have heard about this before, but now I looked at the date of these articles (there were more than just this one) and it is January 2010, making it 2 years old. I am wondering whether anything has changed since then. From what I have read, the government wanted to bring the average salary down as soon as possible. It's been two years now and it would be great to have a slight update on what is happening now and whether the wages have been lowered, raised (I doubt! ;p) or stayed the same.

Thanks

Ooooh, this is going to be fun.....

Well dodos9 you've obviously found this site before...perhaps a little more reading would take you where you want to be....

....though like Spitoon I'm pulling up a chair for the show:}

they have indeed been replaced by automatic systems which say

'standard routing' ...'standard routing';)

I actually thought of putting 'disregard the automatic system part' because it's very controversial and most importantly that is not the point of this article I would like to talk about. It is the figures that I am interested in. Have they changed?

If I wanted to talk about the automatic system I would have asked 'What do you think about automated ATC as stated in this article' but I am not. ;)

Thanks and any news about sorting these wages out?

I have actually changed a link to a different article which states THE SAME figures as the previous one, but without the unnecessary, controversial part.

Hello,

First of all, those figures were just government propaganda. I´m a spanish controller working since ten years ago at one of the acc´s as supervisor/instructor and I have never seen such salaries, nor even close, even when the big overtime was needed and rewarded generously.

Right now, and only talking about the salary: We supposedly earn 200.000€ average, but we haven´t seen that amount of money either, i think we must be around 140.000€/average for around 1700 working hours and 24h/365days on call duty.

Best regards.

Well which still gives almost 12k a month and only salary as you said. Pretty nice figures,would like to see it all around Europe:} Do you have shortage of ATCO's up there in the island?:E

Spanish ATC is the worst, IMHO, in Europe.

Italian is the best:}

@Sonnendec
Thanks for your reply! It is always nice to hear from someone who definitely know what they are talking about. Yours and the article's figures differ significantly, but as you said if it is a propaganda then it is very exaggerated. I have to admit that I actually believed in those figures from the article in first place. However, as you stated the average being 140,000EUR, then this means that a lot of controllers earn more than that so that the salary can average out at this figure including all the new ATCOs who earn less I believe.

@ron83
I am wondering why the salaries differ so much from other countries. Also, from looking at AENA's website (not thoroughly though, I have to admit) I don't think they are looking for new candidates at the moment.

@clyclayton, prascho
I can't really comment on these myself

Just my 2 cents: the average my colleague mentioned (140.000€) is before taxes. In Spain, with that income, taxes rise up to 47-49%, depending on the region you live in.

@Lssar
No way!!! Almost 50% of taxes! That seems like a lot! Well, that sort of pulls it towards what other countries' ATCOS earn I believe.

Of course, average 140.000€ is BEFORE taxes, sorry for not clarifying that in my first post.

12k a month? hahahaha, i wish... :=

never mind

dodos9,

From what I recall, those meteoric salary figures headlined the media's attack on Spanish ATCOs when (I stand to be corrected here) just three of them, probably quite senior, out of the entire Aena ATCO workforce, agreed to work every single day of an entire year on a dual/parallel runway operations project at LEMD, hence the ridiculously obscene amount of overtime involved. Exactly what hours were involved, I have no idea...

Now that privatisation is rearing its ugly head at 47 of the towers in the airports and heliports, you can drastically reduce such figures for future TWR-only rated ATCOs. Read http://www.pprune.org/atc-issues/477...cos-spain.html for example and take a wild guess at what the eventual outcome will be.. but the salaries will most likely be paltry in comparison. Meanwhile, as mentioned above, the salaries in the ACCs and the towers yet-to-be-privatised don't fare too bad, compared with the rest of Europe and more importantly, the average income in Spain itself.

Sonnendec, 24h/365 days on call duty?

€140000 gross is €87900 net, so about €7300 a month. There are regional variances but only 1 or 2%.

Spain's average annual income is roughly €2300 a month. Maybe a bit more.

1700 hours a year is 36 hours a week assuming you get 6 weeks leave per year, you do get your month off in one go don't you?! So 24/7/365 is crap isn't it.

Plus you're all rubbish and unprofessional and the worst "service" I have ever received in Europe.

Is it "because you're worth it"?

beachbumflyer said:

Yup. We have a theorical 1670h working hours limit per year, plus around 50 training hours, plus 80 extra hours more. BUT, and here is the trick, we can be forced to work any day, any shift, out of our roster, (and they do) and those hours don´t count for the so-called working hours limit.

At the end, you are available 24/365 for Aena. By law.

:ugh:

Wow, thanks for the feedback! Very useful, you've opened me eyes. I'll try to be a better ATCO from now on.