Flybe Salaries

[garethjk22]

Hi all.
Don't know if anyone can help me. I've just received the application pack for flybe, and it states that on successfull completion of the course, F/O's may be paid a salary that is below the market rate for non sponsored F/O's. Does anyone have an idea what the salary is? I will need to (if - big if - successful borrow some of the money) so naturally bank will want to know what salary I can expect!

Thanks for anyone who can help - hope all r well.

Gareth

[Bleep]

Obviously being an important subject matter I do not wish to mislead - and I will stand to be corrected. But I do know someone accepted onto the scheme last time (Almost 2 years ago I think), and I believe the starting salary was in the region of £19K. Hope this helps.

All the best,

Bleep.

P.S I assume you are talking about the sponsorship scheme !?

[garethjk22]

thanks bleep.
Does that include sector pay do you know? £19k sounds quite low for an investment of over £32k!!!
Especially when you think that the low cost guys are paying around £30 ish sector!

Thanks for the information though, very useful!

Gareth

[Crosswind Limits]

Welcome to aviation!

I don't know if you have realised already but pay scales for junior FOs on turboprops are generally not that great, especially after having funded £45-50,000 of their own money on training. The partial sponsorship being offered by BE, may not be great BUT getting a guaranteed job at the end of it takes the vast majority of risk out of the initial investment.

Try investing £45-50k on training with no guaranteed job at the end! Sorry to say but that makes your concerns seem quite insignificant! If you get partially sponsored, just be grateful that you will get paid a reasonably good salary to fly modern EFIS aircraft. Once you get that all important experience, then you can move on to bigger and better things.

[aaaaaa]

On the old web site BE gave the salary for an FO on Dash 8 as being about £19K plus £1.54 (or some similar amount) per flying hour.

This was for non sponsored applicants - I understand that you have to repay some of the sponsorship out of the £19K.

I would like to stand corrected on that - anyone know. Not much left to live on!!

[garethjk22]

Thanks crosswind.
I had figured that a guaranteed job was of course a huge bonus, but you are bonded for 5 years post training - which on a salary which is lower than expected, is quite a long time. Yes, there are many plus points to the flybe sponsorship, which is why I shall apply, but you also have to consider the negatives - nothing is ever plane sailing!

Thanks to all who have replied, all comments help to complete the picture.

Gareth

[jonjon]

guaranteed job?

Hi everyone,

garethjk22,

Read carefully the application, they do say that you may not be offered employment at the end of your training.

But even then you are still bound for 3 years...

JJ

[garethjk22]

O my god, got no job!

I know (my attempt at humour there!)

But, they only want 4 cadets and I know they are about to order a whole load of CRJ's and Dash-8's, so chances are there will be a job unless the airline goes bust, in which case binding is a bit of a non starter.

But, as you say, needs to be borne in mind!

I would normally jump at the chance of sponsorship but I'm a little unsure about this one ... will apply anyway, if nothing else, gets me practice at the tests for the Britannia one next year.

Gareth

[Number Cruncher]

Maybe a few London Underground Train divers should take a look at this post and realise they are not so hard done by after all!

How much do they invest in their training..........??

[Ray Ban]

Very true Number Cruncher!

[Number Cruncher]

Its not as bad as it may be!

I've just seen that the average bus driver earns £17k per annum, and guess what - they're not happy either.

I don't want to elaborate too much on the fact that some airline flying jobs appear to be underpaid because we all have the choice and ultimately we make our own decisions at the end of the day, but given the amount we spend on training, the skill and knowledge we need to have, the amount of responsibilty we have to handle, i find some of the salaries on offer ludicrous! Do we sit down to watch the news every week only to listen to disgruntled pilots crying about their pay? No! Pilots, are you happy wih your pay?? How long into your flying career does it take for you to lose that saying, "oh, i'm not overly concerned about salary, as long as i'm doing what i love"..........

After all, airlines exist as a going concern based on which group of its employees?.................its pilots maybe?

[timzsta]

My source tells me salary is £19,000 pa, and stays at that for 5 years. Out of your salary you have to pay back the costs of your training that the airline paid. So not a great deal to live on.

But, you get a job at the end off it. Flybe has good backers, and I'm sure they plan to develop their product over the next couple of years.

Five years down the line you will have stacked up plenty of hours, plenty of TO and landings and will probably have moved up to the 146/CRJ and possibly got a command.

I cant afford the 32K I am afraid, but if I could I would apply without a doubt.

Good luck.

[garethjk22]

thanks everyone - comments much appreciated!
I would need to borrow some of the money which is where my concern lies. In itself that's not so bad, but I graduated from uni last year and also have a student loan to consider.

Thanks again, and good luck to anyone else who applies!

Gareth

[excrab]

Garethjk22,

I'm not sure where you get your information from, but rather than ordering more CRJs flyBE are desperately trying to get rid of the ones they own.

They pay salaries that are amongst the lowest in the industry.

Whilst not looking at redundancies at the moment pilots have just been invited to apply for unpaid extended leave/career breaks.

Morale at some bases is so low that 8 pilots have resigned in the last three weeks and the turn over of cabin crew is approximately 30% per year.

Don't get me wrong - it can be a good place to work ( I've been here ten years, but then my base is surrounded by water so unless I move I have little choice ). But the chances are that if you join as an F/O on a turboprop then in 5 years you'll still be flying a turboprop unless the job market picks up significantly.

[Propellerhead]

When I applied and went for interview, I was told to expect 18-19k on the turboprop but a few years ago I was promised I'd be on the jet within 2 years, and probably within 1 year as things were going well at the time. I guess times change. The jet salary is over 30k I believe.

When I did the calculations I found I could only afford to live after the sponsorship if I did indeed get on the jet quickly. I could not have easily lived on 19k for 5 years whilst paying back a large bank loan for the initial costs.

[Dudley]

Cadet Salary

Here is the info. I have a friend working for Flybe and he is a cadet. You will get 19K plus flight pay. The company will reduce your salary by £330 a month for 5 years which is about 20K (60x330 = £19800).
Therefore your take home + duty pay should be around £1100/month on the Dash 8. If you are lucky and end up eventually on a jet, you will get about £1600 a month. Although it is quiet unlikely with the current strategy of the company of getting more turboprops and get rid of jets...
Hope that will help.

Regards

[Waypoint10]

Dudley,

Thanks for the information, good to know before applying for the sponsorship.

Do you know, or could you find out, by how much a cadets salary will increase over the five years if he stays on the Dash 8.

If one had to borrow the full £32,000, didn't get paid for 14 months during training, had student loans to pay back, was taking back £1,100 a month after tax, had to run a car to get to an airport, pay rent, food, pay back the £32,000.......

I've done the sums and they don't make good reading!

I am not having a go at flybe or cabair (it is good to see any kind of sponsorship) I am just questioning if the average graduate/school leaver can afford to do the sponsorship without considerable parental financial input or savings.

Any thoughts.

Waypoint 10

[Dudley]

It isn't great. £1100 a month is a pretty accurate figure. Not great.
About hope of salary progression, you would get the standard £500 a year increment... Not great either (about £30 a month). If you count on annual payrise, there hasn't been any for 2 years. So the only hope to get a higher salary is to move on the Jet pay which would bring about £1600 including Cabair Loan.
Problem is that nowadays it is becoming difficult to move on the Jets with Flybe (apparently). They are reducing their Jet Fleet and therefore people spend more time on the turboprops. One of my friend has been on the Dash for nearly 3 years and he has no hope to go on the Jet at the moment.... At least he wasn't a cadet, so he gets £330 more a month and his parents helped him to pay the initial course.
Waypoint, make your sum. It is not financially easy, and a tube driver in London is better paid. But on the other hand, you'll get some good hours which might get you the better jobs in the future... Maybe

Good Luck with your decisions. Hope all this help.