In some ways their contract is industry leading. NetJets uses my current gig a lot to cover their excess work. My first year pay is 9 year pay on similar size equipment. They fly up to 40 hrs a week compared to my 30 hrs a month. My daily per diem is nearly double their daily per diem for domestic and international. Their Healthcare and retirement package (of course there is also the amount of scheduled hard days off they have) real difference maker. And those are the two things I believe NetJets want the pilots to concede on.
NetJets partner company EJM also pays higher initial rates, has Healthcare 100% payed by the company, has retirement funding, and also has profit sharing!
NetJets is the industry leader in corporate aviation. My hopes us that their pilot group continues to raise the bar.
The problem, though, is that they're way behind the eight ball when it comes to professional, career aviation jobs. NetJets is not a "stepping stone," and so when it comes to Joe Average Pilot looking for an I'm-gonna-retire-from-this-place job, he's going to compare it to Delta, United, and American. Right now, they're about competitive with (maybe a bit better than) your average regional airline.
At any of the Big 3, Joe A. Pilot can expect to make $110-$120k in his second year, while working half the month and not being gone from home for more than about 4 nights at a time. By year 10, he'll either be a senior FO making $180+ flying to Europe every other week, or be a captain making $200k+. He'll get a large company contribution to his retirement, and he and his family can fly for free anywhere in the world in first class. On the downside, he has to pay for his own benefits, is arguably flying older equipment for an older, larger, more stagnant company, can't get hotel points, and flies to a lot the same places (read: the job gets boring).
At NetJets, Joe Pilot will be making $65-70k in year two and only about $130-$140k by year 10. If things don't move, he'll be stuck at about $85k. He'll only get a 50% match to his 401k. Depending on his schedule, he could be forced to spend an entire week away from home, and he'll be working harder while away. However, depending on what he's looking for, those deficiencies could be more than made up for by the company paid benefits, never having to commute, and being able to actually offer direct customer service. He'll be flying nicer planes to nicer destinations (more varied, at least), and get to keep the airline and hotel points for himself. He also has the choice to keep flying past age 65, if he wants to.
This is the situation I find myself in. I want to go to NetJets, as I truly enjoy corporate aviation. I love the variety of flying, I love the planes, and I love being able to provide personalized customer service. I'd be happier with my job if I went there. But frankly, with their current contract, there's no way in heck I'd stick with them if Delta called. It just doesn't make any economic or personal sense. Unless they start competing with the Big 3, they're going to run out of pilot candidates. If management doesn't realize that in 5-10 years, they're going to go out of business because they can't find pilots for their planes, all because they didn't become career competitive NOW, then they're not as smart of businessmen as I think Berkshire Hathaway deserves. I hope for their sake, the recent changes in management fix that problem.
I wish their pilots all the best. Don't raise the bar, match the bar to those you actually compete against.
