Pilots are the best paid

[Sovi3tskiy]

432 thats about 18 days not home and for £16 per hour, see thats not right in my books, for what you sacrifice, family time, hard work, ect. Seems like everyone is taking the biscuit....

[Depone]

Ah lads, stop bickering about misunderstandings about pay and fees. As was mentioned, this is all about a complete misunderstanding by the ONS on how we are paid in this industry. Of course they are looking at block hours and not duty, otherwise it makes no sense. Yes, pilots are paid a reasonable wage but nothing like the money earned by executives and other businessmen. Remember, gentlemen, we are not all working for BA...

[Superpilot]

Well here's the video....

Pay over the last 25 years - YouTube

Comment is free, don't be shy.

[fireflybob]

Perhaps we should also take into account that these stats are compiled by civil servants who probably (erroneously) regard the piloting profession as glamorous and overpaid and therefore with a degree of envy.

[spottilludrop]

Must say i find people on here comparing their salaries with what a surgeon could earn is laughable how can you even begin to compare what is basically operating a piece of machinery with the level and skill and training a surgeon is required to have?

[fireflybob]

Even if the stats were correct pilots are still underpaid. Professionals are paid for their skill and expertise rather than the amount of hours they work for.

[Callsign Kilo]

My friend is a year in at EZY. He would agree, he is the best paid person in is 2nd job at a courier dispatch office.

[fireflybob]

Have the utmost respect for train drivers but anyone fancy a 35 hour week?

Train Driver Pay

So that's the pay, what other benefits are there? Well you will get free travel for you and you're spouse on your chosen companies network, and you will also get 75% discount on all other rail travel (with some minor exceptions)

You get roughly 7 to 8 weeks holidays per year, and you are only working a 4 day week. They are the main attractions of being a train driver and one of the main reasons why 300 people apply for every vacancy.

However there are many more attractions about the job in my opinion - good job security, protection provided from being part of a strong union, and a limit to the number of hours you can spend driving per day are some of the many many agreements which the unions have negotiated into the contracts.
Many people also love the lifestyle - varied working weeks, working alone for most of the day without interference from anybody, and work that is actually quite fun - you get to drive a train, which may or may not have been the stuff of dreams for many in their childhood (or adulthood in the case of spotters)

During a period of unemployment as pilot I looked into becoming a train driver but was above their upper age limit of 45 which applied at the time!

[Artie Fufkin]

I think they worked it out like;

£45 x 35 hours per week x 48 weeks per year = £75,600.

Last year they put us behind upper Government Officials, Company Directors and Medicine and gave us an annual salary, across the profession, of £75K. For an average, taking into account FO and captain, regional turboprop and legacy long haul etc, I think £75k sounds about right.

I have yet to meet a pilot who believes they are paid enough!

[fireflybob]

Perhaps the Ryanair contract pilots would tell us what they are paid per duty hour over an average year?

[Callsign Kilo]

I'd imagine the tongue in cheek statement helps clarify the fact that FR contract pilots aren't paid per duty hour, but per block hour?

I believe that the lowest is now €40 per hour on a Storm Contract?? Average hours for FOs in 2013 will more than likely be 600.

On a separate note, basic salary for a permanent contract (FO) is €20K. Soon it will be €0. I'm pretty sure it would still guarantee an overwhelming amount of applications for their SSTR scheme.

[spider_man]

I believe that the lowest is now €40 per hour on a Storm Contract?? Average hours for FOs in 2013 will more than likely be 600.

£35K, including salary, is pretty good. I earned £23K 'all in' flying 757s in the UK this year with no benefits and definitely no pension

I think the 75K is an average for BA and VS, only because almost every other pilot in the UK is now self employed through an agency and as such, probably not classified as a Pilot with ONS.

[de facto]

205 EUR Net /hr based on 800 hrs/year.(includes bonuses)/(without bonus:175eur).

Welcome to china

[Microburst2002]

First of all, those statistics clearly show that the inflation index is a BIG LIE.

I mean... Are they kidding? We have now more purchasing power?

If they use pounds per hour as a computed value from pounds per year, then we are the best paid indeed. However, they should exclude per diems from the figure, which they have probably included. That money is not for working, it is for not being at home like any other citizen. It is another story.

But I don't believe the executives make less than us. That's rubish. By the way, when are they going to invent low cost executives?

[Firestorm]

They have obviously made sweeping generalisations (using a particularly large broom), and probably uninformed ones at that, to get the results about pilot's pay. It is likely that similarly flawed assumptions have been made about other professions and trades which I would suggest places the whole report into the realm of "the really rather meaningless".

[John21UK]

Pay is one thing but a lot of guys, including myself, started some years ago at -160.000 euro's. I believe many guys doing their training right now are down almost 180.000 euro's. (Not including a typerating/hrs!!!)

[FANS]

If you’ve been with your airline over a decade, you may recognise some of these tasty numbers, but for those that have ventured into flying in more recent years or been laid off and rejoined airlines, the T&Cs are now a world away.

In short, there has been a massive step change in T&Cs that has been portrayed as being for cadets but will in reality seep entirely through the RHS and then the LHS. We’re in the realm of £30k RHS and £60k LHS going forwards compared to what has been more like double those numbers, and all new entrants need to be fully cognisant of the new playing field . It is not just a recession issue.

[Callsign Kilo]

FANS, in general, new entrants don't give a monkey's uncle. They don't see it as pounds, shillings and pence; they see opportunity, big shinny jets and a couple of stripes on their shoulders. This isn't cynicism, it's reality. You do occasionally meet the odd guy who has thought out the process and worries about the economic reality of it all but, by and large we are dealing with debt free, mortgage free, family free individuals who just want to fly aeroplanes. It's not until they go out and try and start a life that they realise that what they have simply won't cut it. As I say this is a general synopsis. Unfortunately a large section of wannabees have been forced to or have had the good sense to buy into the reality of all this. They have been forced to stay away. There of course are the others that testify to horror stories, holding down two jobs, sleeping on floors, selling what they own just to get by.

[Sovi3tskiy]

Originally Posted by fireflybob

Perhaps the Ryanair contract pilots would tell us what they are paid per duty hour over an average year?

True, that would make most guys feel depressed, I was reading in the paper that O'Leary was having a rant about how he wants to make standing places in the planes by removing last ten rows, so the ticked for those seats would only be like a few quid, "seat belts wont safe you in a crash" was his argument...

But the main thing that caught my eye was him saying "Its just a bloody bus with wings", I think that explains his views on pilots and that they are at best just 'bloody' bus drivers Wait, by that logic it must mean the space shuttle is just a bloody van/lorry with a rocket on it then???? Whats interesting is I wonder what 'bus' company gave them a profit of £477 mil in the last 6 month?! (Im sure their pilots saw A LOT of that)

That attitude of bus drivers really sucks, its unreal for our wages to be matching theirs (im sorry if it sounds big headed or rich) but its not a job for anybody, its limited, we are the privileged few to know the pleasure of flying, its a dream job for many, it takes so much commitment, work, money...To be poor/broke with mass dept and working for peanuts at the end isnt a dream! it isnt a life...

[mct777]

I've seen the standards drop here in the UK. Some FOs have no formal qualifications and can't do basic maths or spell correctly. Where are the professional standards?