Airline Pilot Salary Comparison
Throughout the airline industry, pilot salaries are most often established through a collective bargaining agreement. Salaries are calculated using work rules and minimums set down in a contract, which is agreed to by both the pilots' representation and the airline's management. The Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA) and the Teamsters are two of the unions that negotiate on behalf of pilots.
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Seniority
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Pilot contracts typically employ company longevity to establish seniority for bidding aircraft assignments, domiciles and monthly schedules. The more senior a pilot, the better chance of securing a choice of assignments and schedule.
Salary
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Airlines pay pilots an hourly rate for each block hour, the interval between when pilot releases the brakes for pushback and sets them upon arrival. The hourly rate is the starting point for calculating pay and has the largest affect on a pilot's paycheck. Pilots who fly larger aircraft and typically have more seniority make more than those who do not. For example, the most senior Boeing 747 captain at one major airline earns $178.91 per block hour, while the most junior first officer flying a Beech 1900 at a Midwest commuter airline earns around $16.00 per block hour.
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Calculated Salaries
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Airlines calculate pilot pay based on a number of factors. Since pilots are not paid for the time spent at the airport or for preflight duties, contracts have provisions to compensate them for that time. Depending on the contract, pilots are paid the higher of the monthly contract guarantee, the block hours in the monthly schedule (or line), actual block hours flown, or a combination of block hours, hourly rig and trip rig.
Monthly Guarantee
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Most pilot contracts have a monthly guarantee. This is the minimum amount paid to a pilot who is available to the company but who may not been assigned a trip. This applies most often to pilots assigned to reserve; a reserve pilot has no set trips and is on call to fill open trips when, for example, another pilot calls in sick. It is possible that a reserve pilot may not fly in a given month but is still paid the monthly guarantee set by the contract. Monthly guarantees range from 60 to 70 hours per month, depending on the airline.
Monthly Schedule
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Every month the airline issues a bid package to the pilot group with the next month's scheduled lines. Each line in the schedule is different and contains one month's flying and days off for a single pilot. Pilots are awarded their choice of line by seniority and are paid the line's block time multiplied by the hourly rate. At a minimum, the pilots will earn the line's block value even if a leg or an entire trip is canceled. If the actual block hours flown exceeds the number of block hours specified in the line, the pilot is paid the actual hours flown. A typical line can have between 60 and 80 hours of block time.
Hourly Rig
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Occasionally a trip keeps pilots on duty for as many as 14 hours while only flying for three hours. Some contracts contain provisions for an hourly rig that compensates pilots for the time they are available but unused. For example, if an hourly rig is in place, pilots are paid one hour of flight time for every two hours they are available; so in the case above, the trip rig requires the pilots be paid for seven hours instead of three.
Trip Rig
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A trip rig is similar to an hourly rig and uses the time away from base (TAFB) as a benchmark. So for example, if a four-to-one trip rig (one hour of pay for four hours TAFB) is in place and the airline sends a crew on a one-hour flight to Peoria and has them returning two days later, the crew is credited with the TAFB divided by four. In this case, assuming 50 total hours of TAFB, the crew is credited a total of 12.5 hours instead of two hours of block time.
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