Swiss salary and time to command
 

Hi everyone,

can anyone tell me what it's like at Swiss at the moment? Salary/package/pension, time to command, annual hours worked, roster patterns etc? Morale? And perhaps the biggie - do you have to speak german??

Cheers

Swiss International or Swiss European?
German: Not necessarily...
N1

Well:hmm: German is not their favourite language, but they call it schwiitzerduetsch.
15 to 20 years to command some of the international carrier even never!!:p

Even if you join SWU (Swiss European), you would want to join the career patch, i.e. change over to Swiss International on A320 after a few years. Therafter there's the 10-18 years to CMD, depending on fleet size.

Dani

I thought SWISS required English, German and French? Flew SWISS International not 2 weeks ago and the Skipper and FO both spoke all 3, and seeing that German and French are the main languages (as well as Italian) then one would assume you have to speak them.

Lets see, the webpage about particular pilot jobs is written in german.....it says: Sprachliche Voraussetzungen...
Ausgezeichnete Deutsch-und Englischkenntnisse

So, excellent language command in german and english. I dont think there is a way around it...

Unsurprisingly, not the answers I was hoping for!
 

Thanks guys. I was speaking to a SWISS cabin crew in Jeddah who was saying that they are short of pilots, and pretty desperate to get back some of the guys they had to let go a few years back. The idea of Zurich base sounded good, and I'm sure I could get a decent handle on German in a few months. But 10-to-life for command sounds a bit much. 10 would be OK! Are there any expansion plans that anyone's aware of?

By the way, the way the merger and voluntary redundancies are looking at Thomas Cook (UK), there will likely be recruitment for this summer. TC is actually very good, with decent Ts&Cs. Just not the prestige or 1st class travel of a flag carrier...

Thanks...:ok:

it 's a company of liars with the same swissair mentality, remember the 20 billiard they have stolen and the destruction of crossair, sabena, airlib,...

don't believe one word of what they say on their website and stop listening at cabin crews who know nothing about management except to serve coffee, they just want make you believe they are jobs to sell training for their swiss academy.They are not desperate to find pilots.if you don't believe, send your CV...

you need swissgerman and be very fluent. Swiss is a club and it is very hard to enter.Life is very expensive in zurich (like london)and taxes are high.

very well said dartagnan, thats 100% right.:D

Salary
 

Well, for the salary I must say, it sounds bad. Look @ ppjn and see for yourself. http://www.pilotjobsnetwork.com/fact...cyhhe348hcawb5
I heard that if you join SWISS International and you come with rating and experience on the bus you join the scale in year 3, but converted to EUR that's still only 44,000.- per year :bored:
Tax is only around 20% though and healthinsurance is apparently quite good... :}

What's wrong with 44,000 Euros?:)

well, the 44 k€ is for the main line. If you don't have the rating, you join most probably on the regional line, on Avro 100, soon E-190. The pay there is even lower, but you get a compensation ("Marktzulage"), so you can survive. After 3 years you are allowed to apply for the Airbus job.

GSVal, the expansion is taking place this very moment. Still there are my friends on the A340 with 16 years as FO. Bear in mind that the upgrading is a very enduring process, and not everyone is making it, especially people outside the inner circle, comparable to Cathay and the like.

Dani

...soon E190 @ SWISS ?
 

Dani

Which planet are you coming from ?
May be you elaborate the term "soon" for us. If you are talking in geological terms, then "soon" will be right around the corner of course...
However, after refurbishing all cabin seats of the AVRO RJ fleet to the Airbus standard and the aircraft lease contracts running until 2011, there will be no shiny new Brazilian Jet on the tarmac in LSZH until 2010. The lease costs of these flying AVRO RJ fuel guzzlers are so low that SWISS is quite happy with it. ZRH-LCY is by far the most profitable route within the SWISS European network and the RJ is a perfect equipment to operate there. The E190 will be difficult to be certified for LCY ops (still quite some time to go), the A318 has the steep approach certification but is to big to be operated on a commercial basis into LCY at the moment. To accept A318 ops into LCY some big civil engineering work needs to be done on the ground before that will happen...
The AVRO RJs will stay the years to come. Check your sources before posting such a rubbish.

Soon??? Yes sure and a payrise at least 20%, and its time for a new uniform isnt it??;)

E-170/190
 

Well the official annoucement should come end of 2008, with the first 4 E-170/190 entering in service in 2009, and an expected completed fleet renewal in 2011... Bur for that they need of course lots of pilots... And this is of course only planification... How the reality looks like in 2011, there could be a few differences!:hmm:

For the Regional
 

Ok, so guys for the regional starting pay to year 10 pay as a Captain. I ask because in America it's basically the same starting pay at a local regional. Then it improves with time. Thanks for the help though?

CarbonBrake, you sure have no clue, beside your manners...

The Embraers are ordered already. The question is to which LH branch they are going. It all depends on the LCY approval. This could be a real stepping stone. Because if they cannot certify, LH wont buy them (for Swiss). Still I'm confident that they will find a solution, e.g. a subcontractor.

EjetSetter, after 10 years you can get around 10 000 CHF/month. Since the SWU pilot's pay is the lowest compared to everyone in LH, there is a chance that this number will rise. Also if you think how many pilots they need.

I agree that other regional airlines do not pay better. I cannot say too much against your plans to apply but - as you can see - there are a lot of frustrated and unhappy pilots in SWU...

More to come

Dani

Dani

Relax, have a Caipirinha !
It's a rumours network indeed, yet if you publish rubbish, I call it rubbish.
Once again, check your sources mate because mine in São José dos Campos, Zürich and Frankfurt tell me exactly what I posted...

Dani, the compensation is how much? Like say I make only 2,000 CHF a month, what is added on to that to make me survive? As you put it. I like the E-Jets a lot and would like to know if I could make a career out of just flying them.

It seems to me anyway btw, that a lot of frustrated pilots are on here and most drown out all thoes enjoyed with the job.

As an aside isn't the 190 already certified for steep approach with an extra flap allowing greater then a 3 degree slope in? I say this as FlyBaboo wanted the steep for LCY and Luzerne and now they ordered them.

Dani, i am sorry but youre not very precise on numbers.
Year 10 is 107000sfr, div by 12= 8916sfr in euro 5245,-, this amount minus socialtax and governm.tax, minus healthinsurance gives you about
6000,-sfr in euro 3529,-; is lousy for 10 years and command isnt it??:\

FO Year 1 63000sfr
FO Year 10 85000sfr
FO Year 27 99000sfr

CDR Year 5 90000sfr
CDR Year 10 107000sfr
CDR Year 27 146250sfr
always minus 15% soctax minus 10-20 tax minus healthinsurance.
I hope this is enough for you guys,and think twice before joining this bunch of l....s:mad: