It’s your fault because you probably naively thought that the money earned during the summer is what you’ll get all year.

Not sure how my attitude can be described as disgusting. It’s very simple logic and if you chose to live like a king during the summer 100 hr months expecting that income to remain the same all year round when you well know you only get paid for 900 hrs a year, then that reflects more on you than me.

As you mention Spain- do me a favour and ask the guy working at the pool bar if he earns the same in the winter as he does in the summer, and more importantly if he budgets accordingly.

The ‘should’ points you make are of course correct. I’ve since left and am with an airline that pays me about 85% of my income as a basic salary. While Ryanair ‘should’ do the same, that doesn’t mean that for the 9 years while I was BRK I didn’t plan/budget/save knowing the winter months were slower. I find it amazing people whine about that- and even more amazing they come here to vent.

I know RYR need pilots but doubt they had a gun to your head asking you to sign that contract..

Gentleman Gentlenman Gentleman, let us all try to keep this forum professional and more to the point and business like. PPRUNE should be about exchanging fact, figures and experiences. Every once and a while an emotion is O.K. but this thread has taken an unprofessional turn. This forum is a great place to share information about the airlines we work for so those who are looking to join or switch can make an informed decision. Let’s keep doing this for the greater good of us all.
I recently retired against my will at age 58 from KLM and because I still love to fly am about to join Ryanair, so I really appreciate all the info I read about FR on PPRUNE. Anybody wanting info on KLM just let me know. And for those of you who think I am nuts to join FR, don’t worry I believe I know what I am doing but I guess the prove is in eating the pudding or something like that.

Unfortunately yes it is. However there are some options to extend your career by flying partime. E.g. fly 80% from age 40 and you retire at 62. Other variants are also available. In my time the only option was to fly 80% from age 48 in order to extend your career from 56 (at that time the retirement age) to 58, hence my recent retirement at 58. This young retirement age is a union thing creating a somewhat predictable and steady flow thru to Captain positions for young colleagues. When you are young it’s great, when you are old and have to leave the job and company you love it’s not so great. Many retired KLM pilots continue their career at other airlines all over the world and the sad thing is that KLM had to ground several airplanes this summer due to lack of pilots.

I respect Dutchies desire to continue flying at 58 .. why not he’s still relatively young but he’ll be looking at this from a completely different aspect from most Ryr pilots.

FZ Salary will be a supplement to a well deserved and hopefully decent pension from KLM this puts quite a different perspective on things

Have met plenty of ex-legacy airline Capts at Ryanair and all seem happy enough. BA, KLM, Thomson, Virgin, Emirates to name but a few. It’s not for everyone but it suits a lot of us.

When you die of exhaustion during the summer schedule ;)

think it is 65 now

@diple, decided on FR because believe it or not right now it is one of the better 73 deals in Europe. Schedule 5/4,pay, easy commute AMS-DUB. I have no idea if I will stay till 65 (which is the legal/FR retirement age), will depend on how much I like it. I believe the only way for FR to retain their pilots is to start treating them better in all aspects. MOl should have a talk with Sir Richard Branson. LCC and good pay/ benefits can go together, see SouthWest.
@BluSdUp, @ Arketip, indeed I had to retire, no choice, game over at KLM, love flying and much to young to only mow the lawn.
@Rat5 thanks for the warning, am aware that it will be way different than KLM, already have saved some empty water bottles and bought powdered coffee for in my flight bag. Will let you know how large the shock was. No BV for me, direct employment contract, will definitely be looking for part-time.
@skyflyer 737 thanks for the encouraging words.
@nrn KLM 73 schedule 28 day cycle 17 work 11 off, FR 28 day cycle 16 work 12 off, I fully realize that I have to commute in those days off, hence the DUB base, 4 FR flights a day AMS-DUB.