Winglet
Well-Known Member
Recently I was contacted out of the blue by an airline expressing interest in having me fill out a formal application so that they could bring me to interview. The email was not a generic e-mail and was clearly written specifically for me. So I called them up. The HR lady was very pleasant and she did everything in her power to answer my questions. She said that she found my resume online and that she was really interested in me. I have been on the phone with many a recruiter in the past and this one legitimately sounded like she was Googling for pilots! She wanted me to fill out a formal application to the airline. (Regional Airline).
A week went by and I hadn't gotten back to her s I didnt have interest in the potential job offer. Yesterday I received another e-mail with the following text:
"We are still very interested in you, please complete the attached and return as soon as possible. Hope to hear from you soon!"
The text below is my reply.
(I copied the letter from Word. Looks like the table got kind of screwed up but you still get the picture)
===================================================================
Dear Ms. #####,
I would like to thank you for expressing interest in having me apply for ####### Airlines. I must admit that I have never had an airline contact me out of blue because they found my qualifications online. I am both honored and flattered at the same time.
When we spoke over the phone you were very kind in answering my questions. You were patient and insightful and went above and beyond to get me the answers I needed in order to make an informed decision. I feel that I should return the favor in kind to make sure that you understand why I must decline your kind offer.
Ever since I have been a child I have aspired to be the “guy up front”. The suit, tie and epaulettes are much more to me than a uniform. They are the aspirations, dedication, sacrifices and hard work of an 8 year old with a dream who grew up doing everything in his power to achieve that goal. I managed to achieve it once before and I was shocked to find out how much one needed to sacrifice in order to live on the wages provided by the airlines. I lived a year and eight months of my life with nothing to my name. Spending everything I had on the cost of a crash pad and food because what I was paid wouldn’t allow me to afford rent at the base I was assigned. To top if off, the airline I worked for made very poor business decisions and ultimately dissolved in to space. Since that time I found sustainable employment in aviation outside the airlines.
The thought of going back to the airlines creeps to my mind every now and then. It is after all the dream I have chased for 22 years. However my last experience with an airline taught me that quality of life and financial stability are much more important than a suit, tie and a turbine aircraft.
I spent the last week or so since we communicated running the numbers and after I show them to you, I hope you will understand my point. The final column on the right is what I would be left with based on your airlines current pay scale assuming 80 hours of credit a month. I am padding the minimum credit hours with an extra 5 hours. The table below is not taking in to account expenses for food and gas during the month or trying to put something aside for savings for those rainy days.
Year of Employment
Monthly gross Salary based on80 hours of credit.
After Est. Taxes
After Mortgage
After Car Payment
(does not apply after year 4)
After Car Insurance
After Health Insurance
After Cellphone
After Misc House Expenses (bills, internet etc)
1
$2,160
$1,772
$422
$172
$65
-$95
-$173
-$433
2
$2,480
$2,014
$664
$250
$143
-$17
-$107
-$367
3
$2,640
$2,165
$815
$565
$458
$298
$208
-$52
4
$2,720
$2,231
$881
$631
$524
$364
$274
$14
5
$2,800
$2,296
$946
$946
$839
$679
$589
$329
So as you can see, even with padding the monthly minimum credit hours by 5 extra hours, it will still take me till year 5 in order to live comfortably based on the wages being offered by ####### Airlines. Based on these rough numbers - before I factor in normal food and gas expenses - by the time I reach year 4 with ####### I would have amassed $10,344 worth of debt.
Our industry is one where experienced and skilled pilots are not worth anything to airline management. Lets face it, money talks. Why should airlines pay for skilled labor when the airlines could hire commercial pilots pilots whose licenses still had wet ink on them. The era of the 300 Hour airline pilot is over. Nowadays with the new regulations you will need pilots who have over 1500 hours. Of course that part is not news to your company. I am sure that the HR departments in many a airline are aware that the number of eligible candidates just got significantly smaller. What I am not sure that they know of is that not ONLY is there a requirement to have an ATP pilot for airline operations, but that the process of obtaining the ATP certificate has drastically changed. The new changes will make it much more difficult to obtain the ATP certificate. It raises the academic level of the course and in doing so, raises its costs tremendously. This will make it un-obtainable from a financial perspective to many pilots. I was lucky that I managed to get mine done before the rule change. If I was doing it now, I couldn’t afford the new ATP courses. This means that out of the smaller pool of pilots that are available now, you will have an even smaller one in the future. Furthermore, the future pilots who DO make it and are eligible for hire based upon the new rules, will have other options available to them that pay better and offer a higher quality of life than the airlines can provide.
During our discussion you mentioned that you were impressed by the online resume that you found and were particularly interested in me because I already have my ATP, multiple thousands of hours, unique flying experience, a Type Rating on the aircraft flown by your company and previous 121 experience .
I don’t wish to toot my own horn here, but all this equates to a relatively skilled pilot.
A fair livable wage isn't too much to ask. After all, we airline pilots routinely work 14 hour days and yet get compensated for as little as 4 of those 14 hours. We routinely work on minimum rest times and yet we have hundreds of lives in our hands on a day to day basis. We are away from our families for up to 5 days at a time and 20 days in a month. We miss holidays, birthdays, BIRTHS, school plays and we do so because we know and understand that the public needs to fly. This is one of the most demanding jobs out there both physically and mentally.
I do not live an extravagant life style. Its pretty modest. I am not asking for much, however I think that #######, as well as the rest of the regional airline industry should realize that a skilled pilot at the controls is worth a fair livable wage. A fair livable wage is one that allows a pilot to live comfortably and not require a second job on their days off. In my opinion, a fair starting wage would be what ####### calls “Year 5 FO pay”.
A fair livable wage is not too much to ask. On the contrary, it is the bare minimum to ensure that your airline is staffed by skilled, professional, well rested and safe pilots. Unfortunately, looking at the current prospect of going in to over $10K of debt until I would be able to sustain myself with #######, I am forced to decline your offer to apply for an FO position at the otherwise fine ####### Airlines.
I sincerely thank you for your time,
Ben Zwebner
A week went by and I hadn't gotten back to her s I didnt have interest in the potential job offer. Yesterday I received another e-mail with the following text:
"We are still very interested in you, please complete the attached and return as soon as possible. Hope to hear from you soon!"
The text below is my reply.
(I copied the letter from Word. Looks like the table got kind of screwed up but you still get the picture)
===================================================================
Dear Ms. #####,
I would like to thank you for expressing interest in having me apply for ####### Airlines. I must admit that I have never had an airline contact me out of blue because they found my qualifications online. I am both honored and flattered at the same time.
When we spoke over the phone you were very kind in answering my questions. You were patient and insightful and went above and beyond to get me the answers I needed in order to make an informed decision. I feel that I should return the favor in kind to make sure that you understand why I must decline your kind offer.
Ever since I have been a child I have aspired to be the “guy up front”. The suit, tie and epaulettes are much more to me than a uniform. They are the aspirations, dedication, sacrifices and hard work of an 8 year old with a dream who grew up doing everything in his power to achieve that goal. I managed to achieve it once before and I was shocked to find out how much one needed to sacrifice in order to live on the wages provided by the airlines. I lived a year and eight months of my life with nothing to my name. Spending everything I had on the cost of a crash pad and food because what I was paid wouldn’t allow me to afford rent at the base I was assigned. To top if off, the airline I worked for made very poor business decisions and ultimately dissolved in to space. Since that time I found sustainable employment in aviation outside the airlines.
The thought of going back to the airlines creeps to my mind every now and then. It is after all the dream I have chased for 22 years. However my last experience with an airline taught me that quality of life and financial stability are much more important than a suit, tie and a turbine aircraft.
I spent the last week or so since we communicated running the numbers and after I show them to you, I hope you will understand my point. The final column on the right is what I would be left with based on your airlines current pay scale assuming 80 hours of credit a month. I am padding the minimum credit hours with an extra 5 hours. The table below is not taking in to account expenses for food and gas during the month or trying to put something aside for savings for those rainy days.
Year of Employment
Monthly gross Salary based on80 hours of credit.
After Est. Taxes
After Mortgage
After Car Payment
(does not apply after year 4)
After Car Insurance
After Health Insurance
After Cellphone
After Misc House Expenses (bills, internet etc)
1
$2,160
$1,772
$422
$172
$65
-$95
-$173
-$433
2
$2,480
$2,014
$664
$250
$143
-$17
-$107
-$367
3
$2,640
$2,165
$815
$565
$458
$298
$208
-$52
4
$2,720
$2,231
$881
$631
$524
$364
$274
$14
5
$2,800
$2,296
$946
$946
$839
$679
$589
$329
So as you can see, even with padding the monthly minimum credit hours by 5 extra hours, it will still take me till year 5 in order to live comfortably based on the wages being offered by ####### Airlines. Based on these rough numbers - before I factor in normal food and gas expenses - by the time I reach year 4 with ####### I would have amassed $10,344 worth of debt.
Our industry is one where experienced and skilled pilots are not worth anything to airline management. Lets face it, money talks. Why should airlines pay for skilled labor when the airlines could hire commercial pilots pilots whose licenses still had wet ink on them. The era of the 300 Hour airline pilot is over. Nowadays with the new regulations you will need pilots who have over 1500 hours. Of course that part is not news to your company. I am sure that the HR departments in many a airline are aware that the number of eligible candidates just got significantly smaller. What I am not sure that they know of is that not ONLY is there a requirement to have an ATP pilot for airline operations, but that the process of obtaining the ATP certificate has drastically changed. The new changes will make it much more difficult to obtain the ATP certificate. It raises the academic level of the course and in doing so, raises its costs tremendously. This will make it un-obtainable from a financial perspective to many pilots. I was lucky that I managed to get mine done before the rule change. If I was doing it now, I couldn’t afford the new ATP courses. This means that out of the smaller pool of pilots that are available now, you will have an even smaller one in the future. Furthermore, the future pilots who DO make it and are eligible for hire based upon the new rules, will have other options available to them that pay better and offer a higher quality of life than the airlines can provide.
During our discussion you mentioned that you were impressed by the online resume that you found and were particularly interested in me because I already have my ATP, multiple thousands of hours, unique flying experience, a Type Rating on the aircraft flown by your company and previous 121 experience .
I don’t wish to toot my own horn here, but all this equates to a relatively skilled pilot.
A fair livable wage isn't too much to ask. After all, we airline pilots routinely work 14 hour days and yet get compensated for as little as 4 of those 14 hours. We routinely work on minimum rest times and yet we have hundreds of lives in our hands on a day to day basis. We are away from our families for up to 5 days at a time and 20 days in a month. We miss holidays, birthdays, BIRTHS, school plays and we do so because we know and understand that the public needs to fly. This is one of the most demanding jobs out there both physically and mentally.
I do not live an extravagant life style. Its pretty modest. I am not asking for much, however I think that #######, as well as the rest of the regional airline industry should realize that a skilled pilot at the controls is worth a fair livable wage. A fair livable wage is one that allows a pilot to live comfortably and not require a second job on their days off. In my opinion, a fair starting wage would be what ####### calls “Year 5 FO pay”.
A fair livable wage is not too much to ask. On the contrary, it is the bare minimum to ensure that your airline is staffed by skilled, professional, well rested and safe pilots. Unfortunately, looking at the current prospect of going in to over $10K of debt until I would be able to sustain myself with #######, I am forced to decline your offer to apply for an FO position at the otherwise fine ####### Airlines.
I sincerely thank you for your time,
Ben Zwebner