Ramping for an airline

Matt13C said:
What does a ramper make typically if working full time?
Click to expand...

I maybe in the low $40's last year on first year ramp sup pay.

Now I will be making less than 20K as a gear slinger, but I enjoy going to work.

To answer Ayork's questions, I was hired at Southwest when I was 18 and became a supervisor when I was 19, so it's 100% doable.
 
juxtapilot said:
If at all possible, go to Southwest...
Click to expand...

I totally agree. I was a ramper there for 7 years. I was making $18 an hour when I left and others making that amount would work overtime and were pulling in $70,000/year. I think they are starting at $11/hour or there about. The company pays for medical, dental, and vision. 401k matched dollar for dollar up 8.6%. Flying benefits start on day one. Plenty of opportunity for advancement. I loved it there and I wouldn't have left if I didn't have the flying bug.
 
A part time CFI buddy of mine with a college degree was a ramper at 18 and worked his way through college. He still works there. When I asked him why he never left, he told me what he makes. Well over 50k, but he has been there almost 20 years.
 
DiverDriver22 said:
Btw, southwest top out pay for an eleven year ramper is $25.98/hour.
Click to expand...
Plus any mandatory overtime or shift coverage is double time. Only thing is, my friends at Southwest get a TON of that at most stations, even if they don't want it. Especially the supervisors, my friend at SFO ended up working 13 days straight thru the holidays. Huge paycheck, but he was really pissed and grumpy.
 
I 2nd the Southwest Option. I started initially with a Regional (Skywest) and am now with Southwest. I worked ramp for Southwest for a few months before transferring into Ops. Hands down, the work rules, pay, medical benefits and flight benefits are the best HANDS DOWN. My first year with the company, with an OK amount of mandatory OT (and some Voluntary OT) I'll make around 36k. Not bad money considering my wage is only $11.52 an hour. I overall enjoy coming to work and have freedoms not afforded to others in the airline industry as of right now. Funny thing is, you can completely make a career pretty much with any position within Southwest. Not many companies/jobs can you say that about.
 
Ghost said:
Where have you applied?
I don't think we have any open lines right now at Regional Elite (Delta) but we have a quick turnover. Piedmont (US Airways) seems to be hiring often too. Not sure about ATS; they ground handle American.. Southwest and United/Continental rarely hire here, probably because they're under a union.
Click to expand...

Applied at Frontier and Regional Elite. Those are the only two with openings at OMA at the moment.

I'll definetly keep my eyes open for Southwest. Probably be a bit tough to get a job there since OMA is a bit smaller of an airport.
 
I've had an incredibly hard time trying to apply at Southwest. The window for hiring is open for about 2 seconds before it's closed again. I even had an email alert set up and never got anything and they'd hired new people in that time. Oh well. I'm senior enough to have most of the weekend off and I'm able to go to Europe. Not worth making the jump since I'll hopefully be moving on soon.
 
JordanD said:
I've had an incredibly hard time trying to apply at Southwest. The window for hiring is open for about 2 seconds before it's closed again. I even had an email alert set up and never got anything and they'd hired new people in that time. Oh well. I'm senior enough to have most of the weekend off and I'm able to go to Europe. Not worth making the jump since I'll hopefully be moving on soon.
Click to expand...

Jordan, I do agree on the difficulty it is to apply. I was constantly checking online (2x a day) to see if anything was posted. When it did, I had everything ready to go. The part I loved most about the process? They didnt ask you a stupid 200 questionaire like every other airline does. You submit your resume and answer the basic questionaire (legal to work in the country, yada yada) and the rest is they call you based on your resume. From there its a phone interview, then a local interview at the airport. Pretty straight forward and quick process.

Luckily, since im in a major airport (BOS) we have some awesome local agreements (Jetblue (non stop/redeyes), US Airways (good for int.), British Airways, and Alaska (Hawaiiiiii) to name a few).

You brought up a good point though.-- if youre looking for a set schedule and arent looking for a fairly labor intensive job, Southwest may not be the best option. You will work on your days off, you will get extended out from your normal 8, you'll get extended in, and so on. When I worked Skywest, that was UNHEARD of. I could plan parties, get togethers, dinners, you name it. Southwest, not so much.
 
DiverDriver22 said:
I totally agree. I was a ramper there for 7 years. I was making $18 an hour when I left and others making that amount would work overtime and were pulling in $70,000/year. I think they are starting at $11/hour or there about. The company pays for medical, dental, and vision. 401k matched dollar for dollar up 8.6%. Flying benefits start on day one. Plenty of opportunity for advancement. I loved it there and I wouldn't have left if I didn't have the flying bug.
Click to expand...
Man, I'm in the wrong part of this business.
 
Bigey said:
I kid you not, we have rampers that make 120k+ a year plus. One our of Ops guys (same Contract, just a little bit higher pay) makes 100k working a couple extra shifts a week.
Click to expand...

I know that to be true as well. Here in San Antonio (pretty senior) all the old timers bogart all the overtime and only a little trickles down to the more junior folks.
 
Bigey said:
I kid you not, we have rampers that make 120k+ a year plus. One our of Ops guys (same Contract, just a little bit higher pay) makes 100k working a couple extra shifts a week.
Click to expand...
Jeez. How long has he been there?
 
i agree. its nothing but high class labor work. i was a former ramper at continental(now United). worked PT for about 15 months. plenty of OT and override pay as LEAD
 
DiverDriver22 said:
I know that to be true as well. Here in San Antonio (pretty senior) all the old timers bogart all the overtime and only a little trickles down to the more junior folks.
Click to expand...

Haha yeah, same here in BOS. We at one point had enough OT going around where it was a mandatory BANK of time. You could pretty much anticipate to get mandoed and hit with plenty extensions in and out. I racked up 46 hours of mandatory a few pay periods ago! Cha-ching!

JordanD said:
Jeez. How long has he been there?
Click to expand...

12 years. It only takes 11 years (completion of your 10th) to reach the max of the payscale. I hear the current negotioations are trying to bring that down to 9 and squeeze each year up in pay in lieu of a complete pay raise across the board. Heard it here first!
 
Yeah, I worked for US Airways in PHX on the ramp just under 5 years. 2 weeks of vacation, flexible shifts (trade with people, drop shifts outright), etc. I worked full time for 2 years, then PT for 2.5 when I got another full time job in IT. It was perfect, flight bennies back to Chicago and to see family in Europe all the time. Full medical, dental, etc. When I left I was making just over $14 / hour, plus an extra buck when I was a team lead as needed. I miss it everyday and hate that I had to move and no transfer was available.
 
So, with SWA employees working so much OT, at some point doesn't it become cheaper and better for employee morale to hire a few more people for that station so you're not paying time and a half, and your employees aren't burning out?
 
Roger Roger said:
So, with SWA employees working so much OT, at some point doesn't it become cheaper and better for employee morale to hire a few more people for that station so you're not paying time and a half, and your employees aren't burning out?
Click to expand...

Well heres the thing. When they 'mandatory' us, it's not time and a half. Its double time. And it's actually cheaper to pay double time to an employee than it is to hire another person. The cost for training a new employee is right around 15k. Then in addition to that, once they get signed off on training, they're released to the 'line' and the company will start having to pay for said employees benefits and 401k contribution. The benefits cost the company a WICKED amount since we have some pretty awesome medical, vacation, and sick benefits. So it's cheaper to have one employee (or in the case, split the hours up amongst the group) work the equivalent of 2 peoples shifts to reduce the cost of labor. Most, if not all employees enjoy the added pay of double time. Those that dont, usually have the option of trading the shift to someone who wants the OT in which it can be given to any employee but at a regular OT rate (1.5 time pay).

Theres some crazy stories out there of people being on the clock for outrageous numbers. I wont mention which station but theres a guy I know that was continuously on the clock for 60 hours. :aghast:
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top