Have worked for a legacy airline and today working for Easyjet. Chose Easyjet for the simple fact that I wanted time with the family.
In a year I have no more than 10 nights away from the family.
5-4 roster pattern. Can choose between early or late rotations. Have tried both. On earlies you have to be strict about bedtime, so no social life in the evening but fantastic for family time with the kids.
Currently working 660 hours a year.
Can take parental leave whenever I want.
If you are fatigued or did not sleep well you call crewing and report fatigued or UNFIT. It has never been a problem
Money is very good here but not China.
Would recommend Easyjet to anyone if you want a good family life

Bex,

If BA is likened to a top British Public School then you see yourself at the bottom fagging for all the seniors with no end in sight..?

I completely sympathise with you.

All this mention of 5/4. Is it even available for people starting today?
Here here Cragggenmore.

5-4 roster pattern is only available in mxp, everywhere else is either 5-3-5-4 or random. The number of captains in easyJet requesting to go part time due to workload is massive.

Part Time is something that is very popular these days. Most Pilots state work / life balance - some mention keeping under tax brackets. Airlines also generally like P/T as most guys that go are senior in rank, replace them with cheaper Captains and wannabee F/O's - apart from increased training costs and insurance it's a win-win.

In the twilight of a career P/T is magic. The increase in health, relaxation, balance in work/social life, opportunities for life outside an aluminium tube and social interaction to people you'll see more than once a month is worth so much more than the slight loss in NET income. Carpe diem. I re-discovered what a weekend was. Monday mornings had no fear. Fun returned to the job.
Do not discount it.

Why wait for the twilight of ones career? It seems the perfect answer for the author of this thread. I aim to be part time from my early 40s. My company has an 87% work option for 92% pay, this seems a really nice introduction to part time and will give me a little more time with my boy while he's still fairly young. What's 8% pay compared to time with loved ones? You can't take it with you guys!

Great thread, warts and all stuff with eyes open etc


Sums it all up really. I just hope I can live by it because it is very easy in this job to chase the money and ignore the big picture, strange when you think we spend all day at work thinking about the big picture!

Ps Bex I know you have got a command and want time at home and roster control but BA long haul is a different airline, if you decide to go that way. I have much more proper time at home with my kids.

I worked for ezy, great people and a great job, but you will work bloody hard. Frying pan and fire springs to mind.

"BA short haul Capt, as best as it can get" Oh please.....I'm appalled at what take home pay a junior Airbus Capt makes, never mind the costs of commuting on top of that. Some folks on here need a serious reality check!!

Toastal

If your post was a criticism of my post no.8, at least have the decency to quote the whole quote!!

If it was in relation to another post, I apologize for taking you to task.

What is the take home pay 'roughly' for a junior 320 capt?!

If you go back to the OP's question, this is about lifestyle, not money.
At the age of 60, if the OP ends up divorced, a stranger to his children and suffering from ill-health, no amount of income will make him happy.

Judging by the amount of people going PT at my airline, for financial, social and health reasons, its becoming a no-brainer.

I have to say well played by the airlines. For years pilots were the necessary evil. Well paid, returning only around 600 hours pa. Lush hotels, unions etc etc.

Solution, work them to the point that they have to go part time for the job to be sustainable on the body, family life etc. Back to the historic circa 600 hours pa, but at 70% of the original salary.

What is the take home pay 'roughly' for a junior 320 capt!?

The below are the approx basic salaries give or take a few pounds and don't include any pay increase for 2017....this will be the bracket for those that joined BA and got a quick command from the bidding blip in 2015. They don't include flying pay of approx £8k ish (900hrs) per year and then time away from base expenses depends how much you spend downroute, but the overall package for a year 3 Capt without overtime would be approx £93-94k......so by no means mind blowing for a legacy carrier. Of course historically you'd never be on pay scale 3 as a Capt at BA as you'd have been in for 9-10 years to get a SH command when the basic is more like £91,500. But as someone rightly points out above this particular discussion is about lifestyle and family not just money!

Basic year 2 Capt 34 point pay - approx £75,500
Basic year 3 Capt 34 point pay - approx £77,500
Basic year 4 Capt 34 point pay - approx £79,500

I have to say well played by the airlines. For years pilots were the necessary evil. Well paid, returning only around 600 hours pa. Lush hotels, unions etc etc.
Solution, work them to the point that they have to go part time for the job to be sustainable on the body, family life etc. Back to the historic circa 600 hours pa, but at 70% of the original salary.

The other side of that coin is as the airlines expand and more pilots go part-time they need even more pilots. The business model of the 2nd tier airlines is continual expansion. They are like fish; if they stop moving they die. Allowing pilots to fly until 65 has helped some, but to survive a LoCo for 40 years you need part-time at half-life. I went 50% at 50 and slipped to 40% about 57 then 30% about 60 until 62. One wife & no kids helped immeasurably, but it was the only way for me. A balance of flying & sim also helped.
In the latter years the thought of entertaining 5 earlies or lates away from home in some basic hotel was unthinkable.
There was a question some years ago about what advice would you give to a youngster wanting to join thie rat race, and would you advise it at all. I remember the -ve answers and wonder if they are even more applicable some years later.

I agree this thread isn't about pay. I've said all through my flying career, the best paid jobs tend to be dangerous, boring, or insecure! One way or another there are usually very good reasons why employers need to pay big money! Everyone would do the best jobs for free, if only they could afford to. Float plane in the Indian Ocean, flying in shorts and flip-flops anyone??

But just to put Pork chop express' post in to perspective, it's only right to add some balance! I know for a fact there are more BA SH captains on the top paypoint than on all the bottom 3 paypoints! Last time I checked, the top SH paypoint pays around £140k basic. Plus around £12k. Remember, a fair number of pilots in BA are not UK tax payers!

Top paypoint for a basic (gash shag!) LH captain seems to be around £165k plus £12k. There are very significant emoluments for both training and junior management.

If you can't make those numbers work on a full, or part time basis, (should that be your preference?) then you must have some VERY serious addictions, or a 5 a side team of ex-wives!

I'm not saying for one moment everyone is on these numbers, but nor are many on Pork chops'! Everyone is somewhere along that scale.

There are of course, many other items in the overall package that make BA attractive!

4468

The question was "what is the take home pay of a junior SH Capt that's what I posted a response too....there's no need to jump to BA's defence every time what I've posted is the reality. Being on paypoint 10 or 15 on the 24 point scale on £140k isn't junior!

Of course it's also well worth pointing out that, unlike many airlines a BA pilot doesn't automatically move to the bottom of the captain's payscales on achieving a command. So spend 15 years on a beach as a LH FO, then move across to a pp16 captain. What's not to like??

Of course, if you'd preferred that command in the same year you joined, it was (briefly!!) available!! Albeit for the 'insulting' sum of initially £85-90k. Your choice. After all, Direct Entry Commands aren't available everywhere!

Purely for the information of those who may not know.

Crikey,

4468 has a seriously blinkered view of the world.

Those captain figures, both junior and senior, are deeply underwhelming.

Hadn't checked up on them for some years. Oh dear.

4468, love that 5-a-side ex wifes comment.
I think that's one of the things the OP is trying to avoid, as even on 145k, once the ex is putting your little darlings through private schools and you paying her mortgage until she is 65, while you try to set up home in a Barratt semi with a girl 10 years younger who still wants to breed, there ain't gonna be a whole lot left! ;-)