NuGuy

The industry in Europe from a pilot perspective is a disaster, and we wonder how you guys let it get so far out of whack.

I surf over to euro pilot forums every once and a while and it's like some dystopian vision of the industry. No real schedule control, no real use of seniority, based where they tell you (not what you can hold), upgrades at the whim of management, left to your own devices for negotiating contracts, dealing with local tax authorities, fly to EASA legal limits (which are awful)...but at least you make it up in the pay...oops, not there either.

I was reading a 5 year British Airways NB FO makes about half what a equivilent US FO makes, no where near on the pension contribution, even if you factor in the most expensive version of our health insurance. And that's like their flag carrier.

Hard pass.

EUbird

Yes, the situation is much worse on this side of the Atlantic. Unions are under pressure from management. It took Ryanair pilots years to establish a union. The situation is particularly bad in Eastern Europe. Some operators do not have a guaranteed minimum wage but pay per block hour. My friend is a captain. In December, he was on standby duty and was paid 700 euros after taxes. The best conditions are still in legacy airlines. Air France, I think, is still the best place for pilots. The others are on a downward path.

Can someone answer my question?

rickair7777

Typically I think US airlines carry 6-7 crews (12-14 pilots) per NB. Maybe less at multi-fleet airlines where management overhead pilots can be spread across fleets.

I'd SWAG the breakdown as follows, on average at any given time...

1 Pilot on leave, medical, military, etc
1 Pilot on management / non-flying training duty (might fly occasionally)

1 Pilot on vacation
1 Pilot in training (could be more if hiring/turnover is high)

That would leave 8-10 pilots (4-5 crews) flying the line. Assume basically two shifts so two crews per day per plane, that means the line pilots have a shift on about 40-50% of days each month, so working 12-15 days each month.

Reserves are in the line pilots, they are on call more days, but typically don't fly every day so I'll call that a wash.

Given that you always have a few planes in longer-term mx at any time, that gets you some more time off. So maybe working 11-14 days/month.

If you have a third shift (redeyes) on some planes, maybe back to working 12-15 days/month

Pay is 75-95 hours, and work rules matter since we often get paid more than we actually block.

Rough estimate, I'm sure somebody can shoot holes in that.

notEnuf

I was told 6.5 crews per plane years ago. That would be 13 active pilots per plane. DAL has 17329 pilots and 991 planes so 17.5 pilots per plane. If you take out 4400 due to diability, training, management, union work, instructors etc. then you get to the 13 per plane. That's not an absolute for hiring models just some napkin math.

Gspeed

To start, cabotage.

Gone Flying

On the 320, it looks like DL has about 14 pilots or 7 crews per plane. We are currently taking deliveries so some of these pilots are to staff those new planes

the 737 has no immediate aircraft incoming and is staffed about 13.5 pilots per plane, or about 6.75 crews

PilotBases

A Delta 330 FO makes more than a Virgin 350 capt, and when doing JFK-LHR, that virgin flight will only have two pilots.

How it got out of whack? Ab initio guys flying jets at 250 hours helped apply a lot of pressure.

BACK THE PAC.

NuGuy

This. 10 characters of non-nutritious filler.

Trip7

PREACH PilotBases PREACH

jerryleber

Yep. ALPA and ALPA PAC have done a great job especially in DC. Europe has no equivalent only a bunch of independent in-house unions and managements shop for the country with the weakest labor protections.

Behncke knew clout in DC was the key to our success. How right he was/is!