To work or not to work

planejay

planejay

Well-Known Member
I was recently offered a job as a ramp agent for a major airline. This is an experience that I have wanted to gain for quite sometime.The only problem is that I only have about 10 monthes of flying and ground school before I am a CFI and have a very good chance of getting hired on instructing full time immediately after graduation. The training is suppose to take some where around 10-12 weeks to complete thus pushing my ground classes and flying back the same duration. Furthermore, I am worried that working for the airline for the short time will be a bad mark on my resume after they spent the money to train me and would show instability. I guess I am in need of a second (or third...) opinion of whether or not to take the job. Hope I'm not being over dramatic. Thanks
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If you arent short on cash, then focus on getting the CFI ASAP that way you can earn money plus build time.
 
working on the ramp is an awesome job.....I worked at SNA for about 4 months before I up and left to get my instructor ratings. They have a very high turn over rate at that type of job, so they're already pretty much expecting it. If you don't mind slowing down your training, and if you really want to chuck bags for a while, i'd say go for it....no one's going to look down at you later, and you never know who you're gonna meet
 
Ramp work is probably the most fun I've had working for an airline. I did it for 2 1/2 years with SWA while working on my flight ratings. I was going to try working part time with XJT and full time CFIing, but the scheduling wasn't going to work out. I decided it was time to quit lollygaggin around and go for the CFI deals. I was at XJT roughly 3 months, and they pretty much told me to come back anytime. As long as you're up front with the company, any good company shouldn't hold your career aspirations against you. Right now, when I eventually get the hours in XJT is #1 on my list for regionals I'd like to work for. If you haven't started the ramp job yet, now is the time to make the decision. If you have to move to finish up (which is what I wound up having to do), you probably won't be able to do both. For me, it was whether I wanted the stable job and the benefits or to get on track with my career.
 
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Just curious how much do ramp workers make now days?

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At Southwest...

1st Year: $8.75/hr
2nd Year: $10.18/hr
 
XJT is $8.75 as well.

SWA's big jumps are the first and third year raises. After that, it kinda slows up until year five, then it slows down again.
 
I worked the ramp for about a year before I earned my CFI and had a blast doing it. There's a sense of teamwork and friendship on the ramp that's hard to match anywhere else, at least if you work with a good group of people. I think the knowledge you gain about ground ops is immensely helpful to you later if you continue on to the flight ops or any other depatrment. I'd say go for it.

The one thing about working on the ramp that was a little over-hyped was the networking aspect. Most of the time pilots will simply want you as the ramper to do your job, not sit around talking to them or playing in the airplane (not me though, I promise
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), and personally when I was working the ramp I just wanted to get the job done and see the airplane on its way. The pay can suck too, unless you work your way up to a manger/supervisor type position. Overall a lot of fun though.
 
Skywest was $10.25 yr 1

However it is contingent upon which region of airports you work in. A divisionis not necassarily categorized by geographic location. It is simply determined by airport movement. When I ramped at PSP which was a division 2, I made $9.75, then I transfered to LAX and made $10.25 for the same job with the same xperience and the same time with the company. but to be honest, I don't think it has anything to do with the job being tougher. I think it has to do with cost of going to work being higher at these airports. The food is more expensive, the commute to the ramp takes 30 minutes vs 3-4 minutes at PSP. I think they factor in all these things, thus give a better pay rate because of it.

I heard our rampers in SFO get full medical coverage for some reason. Just in SFO though. It seemed to me that the company was trying to keep that on the hush hush with the other locations.

I loved ramping at Skywest for those 9 months. I will say that the commute made it a killer. In PSP, the workers were awesome, the supervisors were on your side. When I got to LAX it was like a big city. The supervisors really weren't all that friendly, but the rampers still stuck together and made the job fun.

The brasilia was fun to load because if you were full of bags in the back, you could lower the cargo door and free up room for about 5-7 more bags. The freaky part was being in the cargo bay with it packed full of bags and the door being closed.

Funny thing was just this morning I was walking up stairs thinking to myself that if I lived across the street from the airport I would love to go and ramp for the company in my spare time. I would get a work out and its fun too. I doubt that would ever work out though.
 
Ditto what Alchemy said. If you can swing it, by all means try to do it. It's a good way to get your feet wet in airline operations. The networking is there, but it's tough to do. You have to find the pilots that actually like to help others instead of the ones that just show up to work. I also liked the customer service part of the XJT job (sometimes
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). Combined with the ramp, you get a good overall feel for airline ops if you can get a cross-utilized position.
 
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Funny thing was just this morning I was walking up stairs thinking to myself that if I lived across the street from the airport I would love to go and ramp for the company in my spare time.

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Several years ago, a chick I used to work ramp with at SLC continued to work in the deicing bucket in her spare time after she got hired at Delta as an FA!
 
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Funny thing was just this morning I was walking up stairs thinking to myself that if I lived across the street from the airport I would love to go and ramp for the company in my spare time.

[/ QUOTE ]

Several years ago, a chick I used to work ramp with at SLC continued to work in the deicing bucket in her spare time after she got hired at Delta as an FA!

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That "chick" doesn't happen to be the one in your photo does it?
 
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