Pay disparity in airlines, especially LCC/ULCC.

[Alcatraz]

Hi all,
I am a relatively new dispatcher, working at a regional airline for about 9 months now.
I enjoy the job, but would eventually like to get back home to Florida.
Outside of regionals and small cargo airlines it seems my best choice is Spirit. I’d love to work there, but upon checking out the spreadsheet on this site, I’m confused by the pay. It shows that they start at only $50K, while all the other comparable airlines are so much higher. Is that accurate? Are other LCC/ULCC airlines really paying 50% more to start?
Miami area is very high cost of living - seems like being a larger airline in a higher cost of living area they’d be paying more than airlines like Allegiant.
Can anyone shed some light on this?
I’m not dead set on Spirit, but it would definitely be ideal. Not sure I could support myself, let alone my son on that salary down there.
Thanks for any info.

 

[bbmikej]

Short answer is yes.

Long answer is that most LCC/ULCC were comparable until the last year or 2 where they got nice pay boosts. In that time, Spirit has been bid on by a number of other airlines to be bought by them. Because of this, management has been able to stall negotiation talks until a decision is reached in court. Until that happens, I wouldn't expect a new contract at Spirit.

 

[Flagship_dxer]

Hi all,
I am a relatively new dispatcher, working at a regional airline for about 9 months now.
I enjoy the job, but would eventually like to get back home to Florida.
Outside of regionals and small cargo airlines it seems my best choice is Spirit. I’d love to work there, but upon checking out the spreadsheet on this site, I’m confused by the pay. It shows that they start at only $50K, while all the other comparable airlines are so much higher. Is that accurate? Are other LCC/ULCC airlines really paying 50% more to start?
Miami area is very high cost of living - seems like being a larger airline in a higher cost of living area they’d be paying more than airlines like Allegiant.
Can anyone shed some light on this?
I’m not dead set on Spirit, but it would definitely be ideal. Not sure I could support myself, let alone my son on that salary down there.
Thanks for any info.

If Florida is important to you, I would be cautious about Spirit. If the merger with Jetblue were to go through, chances are high that they would move to NYC. Every merger so far has resulted in a closing and consolidation of a dispatch office into a single location usually near or at the corporate HQ. With Jetblue being the purchasing carrier, I would for career planning purposes look at a move to NYC being possible if you go to Spirit. I would not go to Spirit expecing them to be in Florida long term.

Of interest to you may be that just a short time ago Spirit was planning to move their OCC to near BNA. They are attempting to move everything to MCO now. The moral of it all is that Spirit even without a merger could easily move dispatch out of Florida if the right deal was presented to them.

If living in Florida is important to you then take the higher salary at one of the big 6 and commute. A decent number do that right now particularly those closing in on retirement.

 

[Alcatraz]

If Florida is important to you, I would be cautious about Spirit. If the merger with Jetblue were to go through, chances are high that they would move to NYC. Every merger so far has resulted in a closing and consolidation of a dispatch office into a single location usually near or at the corporate HQ. With Jetblue being the purchasing carrier, I would for career planning purposes look at a move to NYC being possible if you go to Spirit. I would not go to Spirit expecing them to be in Florida long term.

Of interest to you may be that just a short time ago Spirit was planning to move their OCC to near BNA. They are attempting to move everything to MCO now. The moral of it all is that Spirit even without a merger could easily move dispatch out of Florida if the right deal was presented to them.

If living in Florida is important to you then take the higher salary at one of the big 6 and commute. A decent number do that right now particularly those closing in on retirement.

True. The merger definitely crossed my mind and the possibility of not actually being in Florida long term.
Hopefully by the next time they hire there’s some more clarity with the merger.
That does sound pretty crazy though with all the jumping around as far as location goes. Must be annoying for their current employees with all the runaround.

Short answer is yes.

Long answer is that most LCC/ULCC were comparable until the last year or 2 where they got nice pay boosts. In that time, Spirit has been bid on by a number of other airlines to be bought by them. Because of this, management has been able to stall negotiation talks until a decision is reached in court. Until that happens, I wouldn't expect a new contract at Spirit.

These replies make it seem like it might not be the greatest environment to work. Thanks for the info. Still, home is home.

 

[Yurie158]

It's sad that the Biggerst ULCC has yet to have an LOA on at least pay despite the ongoing merger

I don't think in my opinion that the merger will have everyone from spirit moving to NYC. They just don't have the space and I could be wrong but I didn't hear of any kind of plan to expand in NYC

Spirit has bases in orlando, Miramar and the Dania Beach plans. It's gonna be several years at least until anyone has to move which can buy you more time but nothing is ever set in stone

Even if spirit got a paybump similar to their competitors, miami is super expensive. But good luck to you

 

[osprey4441]

From what I’ve heard, it’d be best to avoid Spirit until the company can prove that they value their dispatchers. I understand things have deteriorated quite a bit there over the years, and they’re barely above regional pay when you adjust for the expensive cost of living.

 

[flynryan692]

If Florida is important to you, I would be cautious about Spirit. If the merger with Jetblue were to go through, chances are high that they would move to NYC. Every merger so far has resulted in a closing and consolidation of a dispatch office into a single location usually near or at the corporate HQ. With Jetblue being the purchasing carrier, I would for career planning purposes look at a move to NYC being possible if you go to Spirit. I would not go to Spirit expecing them to be in Florida long term.

Of interest to you may be that just a short time ago Spirit was planning to move their OCC to near BNA. They are attempting to move everything to MCO now. The moral of it all is that Spirit even without a merger could easily move dispatch out of Florida if the right deal was presented to them.

If living in Florida is important to you then take the higher salary at one of the big 6 and commute. A decent number do that right now particularly those closing in on retirement.

B6 CEO has expressed a strong desire to keep a split OCC, and even suggested that they were exploring the option even prior to the merger. Words are words, but I don't think he is lying. There could be an issue with moving to NY or FL based on seniority, if it works how the MCO/FLL thing works.

BNA fell apart due to COVID (so I am told), MCO is a back up that was used to spread people for COVID, and it has worked well, so it's a "thing" now. Nobody is trying to move Spirit to MCO, the Dania Beach facility is almost finished, the OCC has been mapped out and planned, and MCO isn't big enough for everybody anyway.

If Florida is your thing, there is no reason to ignore Spirit.

 

[Goldilocks]

The Union is currently in active negotiations with the Company, however there is a hiring freeze at Spirit right now. They just scrapped all pilot hiring for the remainder of the year.

I don't necessarily agree either that the dispatchers will be moved to NYC. Keep in mind, NYC and FL are two very different places for numerous reasons. I think B6 management knows they will not have much luck in moving a bunch of people to a place where the cost of living is already higher than in FL. Additionally, they're paying a lot more for Spirit than they wanted to. Considering they just took a $129 million loss in Q3, I doubt they want to add to that by paying to move people north.

Feel free though to read my summary in the Spirit Hiring thread about some of the things management was doing.

 

[Alcatraz]

The Union is currently in active negotiations with the Company, however there is a hiring freeze at Spirit right now. They just scrapped all pilot hiring for the remainder of the year.

I don't necessarily agree either that the dispatchers will be moved to NYC. Keep in mind, NYC and FL are two very different places for numerous reasons. I think B6 management knows they will not have much luck in moving a bunch of people to a place where the cost of living is already higher than in FL. Additionally, they're paying a lot more for Spirit than they wanted to. Considering they just took a $129 million loss in Q3, I doubt they want to add to that by paying to move people north.

Feel free though to read my summary in the Spirit Hiring thread about some of the things management was doing.

Read through your summary - good information to have.
Unfortunate timing with the hiring freeze. Hopefully things smooth out soon.
I'm comfortable and happy at my regional at the moment, so maybe the extra time will buy some clarity in regards to their merger, location, and pay. I don't think relocating home is worth the massive difference in pay at the moment compared to all the other mainline carriers.