A major european loco operating t-props. I agree their is an argument for the E195 fleet to compare themselves with cityjet for example. You cant get past the fact someone somewhere long ago decided jets required a special kind of person to operate them, and demanded a higher grade of pay, for their skygod like skills and experience, they are no easier or harder to fly, just different to operate with different considerations. As long as anyone operates a t-prop its t-prop pay, T-prop operators will compare each others pay. I wish it was different.

Paul, you must be working for a different Eastern - the one I recall was vastly different to the one you describe. I gather at the moment they've even made chaps redundant - so not overly convinced that it has changed for the better???

Oh yes, and YOU now have to stump up £15K for the J41 rating.....

Having worked for a few airlines in left & right seats, believe me, the FlyBe deal is one of the better paid TP jobs going along with pretty decent T & C's. Of course more money is always good as well ;)

I just think that now Flybe is one of the major European operators, their pay rates and T&Cs should be compared more to Jet2 and BMI Baby, despite the turboprops. With no disrespect, they are in a different league than Eastern in terms of scale.

You can't compare Flybe with J2 or bmibaby, the larger the jet the more the pay as a rule,

I would have issue with describing the EMB195 as 'top notch' yes its new, but it ain't no 777, nor is the rating of any use in the UK if you want to move comapny

Note, I didn't describe the rating as top notch - it isn't as useful as a Boeing or Airbus, though I'm sure that will change a little as it becomes more understood in the wider world.

However, it's capabilities and technology are top notch and it sips the fuel: CAT3 and lower than CAT1 minima with the HUD; one of the first types in the UK to be certified for RNAV/VGP approaches; sparkling climb perf; 2200nm range and FL410 ceiling and needing very little runway at either end. It's certainly not simply a large 145!

The fact that many airlines have it in their mainline fleet probably speaks for itself. It's certainly not a 777 or 380, nor is the rating going to get you a job flying the 777 or 380 as quickly as Boeing or airbus rating, but it's great to fly, and packed with technology. If you park next to myself or any of my colleagues, come up and have a look!

Edit: to prevent too much thread drift - the salary for flying it ain't amazing, but at least the job is secure, with the reasonable T&Cs, a 25% payrise would make the job very desirable and would no doubt save the company on it's training bills. Won't hold my breath though.

If you read my first post, I have highlighted how poor eastern t and cs are compared to flybe and mentioned the redunduncies. But I explained the upside of why people do work for eastern for significant periods of time. And yes it is vastly different to even two years ago. At some bases captains and cabin spend a lot of time away from base in hotels and get a lot of changes, but Aberdeen is pretty stable, if your on the scs operation and based in Aberdeen it's pretty solid, at least in my experience. On the scs op the earliest you start is six and you'll be done by 1230 at the latest on earlies, lates start around 1115 and finish by 1730 at the latest, on a very rare occasion you maybe held till 1930, all Monday to Friday with standby at weekends in case there was bad weather in the week or they need to evacuate a rig. It's a laid back lifestyle, tell me who doesn't want that, the sacrifice is the money. Apart from the odd bad day with troublesome passengers for the cabin crew everyone has fun at work. Like I said before the wage and lack of pension could be considered insulting but you make the most of it, when things pick up some of us will move on some people will stay. It's a job which right now I'm grateful I'm still in.

Back in '97 we all thought EMB-145 Captain at around $24/hr plus perdiem of about 75 cents was pretty pathetic.