Your Lying Eyes

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14 May 2009

When did 'Pilot' become such a shitty job?

$16k a year?! That's what Rebecca Shaw, co-pilot of that plane that crashed in Buffalo, was making. Hell, I'd a crashed the plane out of spite. I'm not surprised regional airlines aren't exactly the glamor center of aviation, but that's downright obscene. With this insulting pay and having to sleep on couches in airport lounges, it sounds more like a job "Americans just won't do." And the poor girl apparently, though married, lived (with her husband) in her parents house in Seattle, and had to commute to Newark via jumper seats on other flights. As the Fox article indicates, she was paid less than NYC cabbies (and they've got a lot easier commute).

15 Comments:

Blogger Heistmeister said...

Yeah, it's shocking what they get for starting pay at the regional lines. The pilot union has sold out the regionals to try and protect the major carrier pilots.

Add to that the fact that Americans have consistently shown that low airfares mean everything to them, as well as fuel price fluctuations and you get draconian cost-cutting measures. That means that a pilot who has invested some $50k for the requisite training (not to mention their time) can look forward to several years of earnings below the poverty line.

May 15, 2009 1:36 PM  
Anonymous Mr. Anon said...

"Heistmeister said...

Add to that the fact that Americans have consistently shown that low airfares mean everything to them, as well as fuel price fluctuations and you get draconian cost-cutting measures."

Yeah, I've never understood that myself. What I mostly want out of air-travel is not the lowest possible fare. What I want is getting to my destination alive.

May 15, 2009 2:37 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

If pay for that job is that bad now, we will have a pilot shortage coming in a couple of decades. Young kids will not be willing to go into aviation for that. Its not worth it.

I suppose the airline's could recruit former military guys to fly their planes.

16K a year...............you can make that working the counter at a convienience store folks.

May 15, 2009 4:50 PM  
Blogger ziel said...

I suppose the airline's could recruit former military guys to fly their planes. There should be quite a glut of them in a few years.

May 15, 2009 6:05 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

This Renslow fellow seems to be somewhat dim. I suppose the poor pay explains this? You get what you pay for?

May 15, 2009 7:47 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

blame the executives and capitalism. pay the pilots shit while the execs at the top pull down millions, hundreds of millions. that's what capitalism is all about. shitting on those below you so you can live the high life

May 16, 2009 2:48 PM  
Blogger ziel said...

pay the pilots shit while the execs at the top pull down millions, hundreds of millions.Hundreds of millions? Not hardly. Hundreds of thousands, more like it. Here's the compensation for the executive board of Pinnacle Airlines, the owners of Colgan Air.

Looks like running Pinnacle Airlines is only a little more rewarding than flying one of its planes.

May 16, 2009 5:13 PM  
Blogger Diana said...

There's evidence that women need more sleep than men.

May 16, 2009 7:14 PM  
Blogger Black Sea said...

I remember reading years ago that one of the pilots in the ValuJet crash in Miami was making something like $32,000 a year. I was appalled, but I guess that by current standards that's doing pretty well.

Back in the pre-regulation days, being an airline pilot was one of the cushiest gigs going. My parents had a neighborhood friend who flew for Delta. He told them he knew he was incredibly lucky (tons of time-off, for one thing), but there was no way the system could last. He was lucky to have had his career when he did.

May 17, 2009 12:21 AM  
Blogger Steve Sailer said...

Lots of people want to be pilots and lots of people want to start their own airlines. The latter is one reason why returns on investment in the airline business are often so awful.

May 18, 2009 4:10 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Back in the early '90s, when my job required a great deal of travel to and from smaller cities, I spent a lot of time riding the regional carriers. One evening I got into a conversation with a uniformed co-pilot on a regional carrier affiliated with one of the major airlines. I, too, was under the impression that airline pilots were paid pretty well. He told me he was making about $12k a year.

My immediate response was shock. My eventual response was to change jobs to where I didn't have to fly with someone making less money than a fry cook.

Not trying to sound like a wage snob, but if a fry cook screws up, the worst that likely to happen is that you get indigestion.

May 19, 2009 11:04 PM  
Blogger vishnuprasath said...

Plenty of companies are hiring fresher & experienced Pilot Jobs in Gurgaon.So Rush to grab your job with attractive salary now.

October 26, 2009 5:44 AM  
Anonymous generic cialis said...

Sadly it's like that because world and business it's about to take advantage of the necessity of people, If you need a job and I offer to pay you $5 per hour, if you need it, you will take it, in china many people work for $100 per month... :S

May 16, 2011 11:48 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

World sucks and there's nothing we can do about it, even if you are happy, try to be like that forever because world sucks anyway.

May 16, 2011 11:49 AM  
Blogger Dustin said...

Amazing blog.Do post more

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