Highest paying airlines for pilots?...
 

As above.
Distinguish between long & short haul

Highest net pay or highest gross? Big difference between the two. Just checked my last fortnights payslip and a fraction under 50% is going to the Irish Revenue/German bond holders.

For sake of international comparisons we could go Gross

My guess qantas since the Australian dollar is pretty strong.

The Australian dollar might be strong but Qantas sadly isn't. :(

And there's the deal. The airline you aspire to may not even exist by the time you're in a position to apply...

TODA

You're question seemed so straight forward... gotta love PPRuNe!

...

:} Trouble is the answer isn't..............................

Gross? Net? Just Basic or do you include allowances/per diems? Training pay? Flying pay? Flying hourly rate?, etc etc.

It's just one question, but there are so many answers.....:ooh:

That would be meaningless as you could have people earning vast salaries who pay 99% tax living on less take home money than a flying instructor earning so little they don't pay tax. The only meaningful comparison in my view is NET, i.e. how much do you have to spend at the end of the month.

There's a job where you can get a salary for not flying for a whole month?! Sign me up!

Nelson15
 

Yeah EXS :}

For goodness sake. Ten posts of nonsense in response to the original question. Just post gross & net if there's any confusion. He/she asked what your pay was, not what your pension, per diem, flight pay, duty pay, day off payments were etc. I won't post mine because it is nowhere near the highest paid but probably sits within the lowest paid.

Highest paying airlines for pilots?...
 

E 28500 pa gross + sector pay and allowances. Average monthly take home after shed loads of deductions E 2800.

Now that wasn't difficult, was it?!

If you don't mind living in China then a nice full-time 787 gig with Hainan out of Beijing will be worth $348,000 (USD) per year. Of course out of that you've got to find accommodation and other expenses normally included in a contract job.

The fact that they have to offer that amount speaks volumes about the prospect of living and working in the people's republic.

:eek:

Even net income is a pretty meaningless figure without a comparison of cost of living and other taxes deduced elsewhere. For example a 19% sales tax reduces your net income by that amount, energy taxes can reduce that even further. Are social security and pension funds taken out of your net income or your gross, does it reduce your taxable income? Are there tax free portions of your pay?

Trying to compare stuff like that is a huge undertaking, there are companies specialized in that field, however buying their reports is quite costly.

Then to borrow an economics trick as an easy way to get around exchange rates and local costs of living ...

"How many standard Big Mac's can you buy in the country/city within which you're based/live in one year with your take home pay?" No price discounting of the "sandwich" allowed.

Find the price of the burger in a local franchise and divide it into your net (no swapping for Whoppers or other local alternatives ... comparison has to be like for like).

For transparency, it might be helpful to post your net too (in your local currency).

Just a thought.

China is leading the ExPat world by far if you account for net pay ie after taxes. The Hainan gig though advertising $348K is not truly in your pocket. They are advertising this as Gross pay and then claiming they are paying 120K per year on your behalf in taxes. The Chinese employers cheat on taxes to the Chinese tax collection agency more than anywhere in the world and much of it is sponsored by corrupt internal officials. The narrowbody Captain pay rates at some carriers now are approaching 25K/month and this is probably the best overall pay in the world net of taxes. There are Fed Ex Captains who clear 400K gross but after taxes and deductions are netting about half that amount. Japanese Captains at one time had extraordinary high salaries and bonuses but pay 50% back in taxes. If you choose to come to China it is a long, long, long process and many pitfalls along the way with the medical being one of the largest obstacles. It is a great place to stay 1-2 contracts to pay off your house, save for the kids college and build a nest egg but do NOT treat it as a career option, simply a high paying short term gig then move on to greener pastures with more stability and security albeit much lower pay.

You can typically make over $200K USD flying a regional jet in China with some earning close to $300K with OT. You can make only a little more by flying larger equipment.

Heck even part time flying in China (six months off per year) you can make about $180,000.

The tax benefits of working in China mean that you would have to make a lot more than the above numbers to earn the same amount in another country.

Of course working in China will take years off your life expectancy so you have to consider if it's worth it. If you can get a heavy job for a Chinese carrier based in a western country that would be awesome...there are a few such jobs.

Clamchowder- where did you hear that?

My salary all gets transferred to my home bank account every month. Cost of living for me in China is less than half the cost in Europe.

There is no doubt that currently if you can maintain your Chinese medical then financially you can do very very well.

Chowder your statement is falsely misleading. Of course you would need to spend money on living expenses but this is the case anywhere and those living expenses are far cheaper in China than most anywhere in the world. At my airline 90% of our salary is paid in US$ but some pilots who commute are paid 9000 rmb about $1500 per month in actual rmb for living expenses. From this amount they pay for everything ie rent, food, utilities, phone, internet and still save for their beer fund. If you compare living expenses with Dubai or Europe you are 3 to 4 thousand dollars per month ahead in China and all of your remaining pay can easily be wired out anytime barring a Chinese holiday and the banks close. If you look at actual net pay China leads the world in ExPat contracts but the work here is harder and the medicals are difficult and no security here.

You don't need to work in China (proper) for good flying salaries. I couldn't think of anything worse! Yuck.

But you need to get pretty close!

I work for a rather large airline in a former British colony :( and just put in my tax return that shows taxable earnings of 260,000 US dollars (154,000 GBP)!

Oh, and I'm an F/O doing about 8 sectors a month, with around 18 days off per month! :O

I can't think of anywhere else that pays that sort of coin. Still, I hate my employer!