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AA ORD recent entry Eagle First Officer pilot earns $38 an hour

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AA ORD recent entry Eagle First Officer pilot earns $38 an hour

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Old Jan 26, 2019, 2:03 pm
  #1  
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AA ORD recent entry Eagle First Officer pilot earns $38 an hour

Not sure if this was previously known or not, I don't really follow AA, but been following this guy on Youtube for a while and a recent video indicates that he earns $38 an hour, as a new-entry First Officer. Seems a bit low to me?

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Old Jan 26, 2019, 2:12 pm
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Assuming this is USD, wouldn’t necessarily surprise me

my partner flies jets for qantas and his initial basic salary was about au$2000 a week (Us$38 is Au$52 today so comparable)

however basic pay/ hourly rate only tells part of the story, the allowances he gets for example for being away from home (every damn night at the moment!), and other things quickly add up. Staff travel IMO is completely worthless but I know others derive great benefit from some of those schemes

i’m mainly just grateful to kiss goodbye to the 7 or 8 years he spent flying props for AU$20-50k a year... (while servicing a $100k training debt &#128553
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Last edited by nancypants; Jan 26, 2019 at 5:20 pm
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Old Jan 26, 2019, 2:36 pm
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Airline Pilot Central (APC) has a lot of pilot pay scales. Here are the captain and FO scales for Envoy. https://www.airlinepilotcentral.com/...onal/envoy_air
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Old Jan 26, 2019, 3:00 pm
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Um, they allow this pilot to fly on school nights?
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Old Jan 26, 2019, 5:49 pm
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Originally Posted by skywardhunter
Not sure if this was previously known or not, I don't really follow AA, but been following this guy on Youtube for a while and a recent video indicates that he earns $38 an hour, as a new-entry First Officer. Seems a bit low to me?
That's actually more than I thought it'd be...
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Old Jan 26, 2019, 7:40 pm
  #6  
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The regionals have significantly increased the pay in recent years due to the pilot shortage, which is due in part to the FAA rule that required first officers to be ATP rated (1500 hours total time) instead of only needing to be Commercially rated (250 hours total time). That really pulled the rug from underneath a lot of pilots who were in the 300-600 hour range hoping to get the interview with a regional, who instead had to slog it out longer teaching in Cessnas or flying charters/corporate.

Reading through the Envoy perks, they're not horrible for someone starting out, and even better as the years add up. First officers get a $22,000 signing bonus + $38 per flight hour (~$38,000 annual based on 1000 flight hours) and then in year 2 they get a $20,000 retention bonus(paid $10K/year for 2 years) and bump up to $42/hour.

It wasn't that long ago that first officers at the defunct regionals like Colgan were paying in the sub $30K range to first year FO's, which was just taking advantage of eager pilots wanting to get a foot in the door.
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Old Jan 26, 2019, 10:21 pm
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Originally Posted by PHL
It wasn't that long ago that first officers at the defunct regionals like Colgan were paying in the sub $30K range to first year FO's, which was just taking advantage of eager pilots wanting to get a foot in the door.
Colgan was also involved in a deadly crash that the NTSB attributed to exhausted pilots (fatigue) and it came out that Colgan pays their pilots peanuts. Apparently they often slept in the company offices or did couch surfing.
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Old Jan 26, 2019, 10:39 pm
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Originally Posted by skywalkerLAX
Colgan was also involved in a deadly crash that the NTSB attributed to exhausted pilots (fatigue) and it came out that Colgan pays their pilots peanuts. Apparently they often slept in the company offices or did couch surfing.
also both pilots were way over 1500 hours so that’s a bit of a red herring, although I suppose an argument can be made that increasing the hours created a market force that raised income and therefore reduced insane commutes
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Old Jan 27, 2019, 1:24 am
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Hourly rate can be a bit misleading, as pilots don't work the 2,000-ish hours of a typical job.

"New hire First Officers will start at the Year 3 hourly pay rate ($38.28/hr) in addition to receiving a sign on bonus of up to $22,100, earning $60,000 or more during their first year." means a base annual salary of somewhere around $38,000/year. U.S. Median Household Income is $ 61,372 as of 2017.
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Old Jan 27, 2019, 2:53 am
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Yeah definitely need to factor in other benefits, that signing bonus sounds pretty decent. This guy was flying for a small Cessna Caravan operator in Hawaii previously, he has a lot of videos on his joining and training at Envoy, quite interesting though all very huffy puffy fluff pieces.
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Old Jan 27, 2019, 4:09 am
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One would hope that a first officer would make more than an NYC MTA bus driver-apx $50,000/yr.
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Old Jan 27, 2019, 4:39 am
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Sad to hear that they dont really make much money.. but hopefully choose flying because they love to fly.. hopefully the money will come after hours and hours behind the wheel
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Old Jan 27, 2019, 8:11 am
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Originally Posted by CPRich
Hourly rate can be a bit misleading, as pilots don't work the 2,000-ish hours of a typical job.

"New hire First Officers will start at the Year 3 hourly pay rate ($38.28/hr) in addition to receiving a sign on bonus of up to $22,100, earning $60,000 or more during their first year." means a base annual salary of somewhere around $38,000/year. U.S. Median Household Income is $ 61,372 as of 2017.
I don't recall the FAA max cap for part 121 pilots, but my understanding is most airlines cap 80 paid flight hours per month, which is why you can only assume about 1000 per year. The rest of us working standard 40/week (or working more and only being paid for 40) can assume an average 2000 hours paid per year.
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Old Jan 27, 2019, 8:14 am
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~

Originally Posted by fotographer
Sad to hear that they dont really make much money.. but hopefully choose flying because they love to fly.. hopefully the money will come after hours and hours behind the wheel
The money comes for sure, especially in the current environment where. Look at the pay scales once they get to the mainlines. A friend of mine who's a few years under 50 was flying UA A319/320 routes as an FO for around 8 years until he bumped up to the FO position on the Dreamliner. Hourly pay is in the low $200's, based on years of seniority. Not shabby at all.
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Old Jan 27, 2019, 10:04 am
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Originally Posted by rbAA
One would hope that a first officer would make more than an NYC MTA bus driver-apx $50,000/yr.
Why? Would-be commercial pilots ought to be smart enough to calculate lifetime earnings and ROI.

Compare educational requirements for pilots vs. MDs, and look at length of work week and wages for medical interns and residents. Pilots earn big later in life. A four-year 737 captain has an hourly rate more than 6x this first year FO.
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