daytonaflyer

Virgin America wants 7000 hours TT for their minimum requirements for pilots and an A320 type rating. That seems really unreasonable to me. They better be willing to pay a lot for pilots with that level of experience.

http://www.prohire.com/candidates/jo...o=careerportal

CE750

They're not. More over... they'll get a ton of anti-union type idiots line up for the chance...

FlyingA320

I am not anti-union and I already applied.

CE750

Well good... we look forward to seeing VA join ALPA and pay industry scale on the 320 then under your leadership.

Skyone

So tell me, what is industry scale for a year one captain on a 320. Oh yes I forgot, there are no year one captains at any ALPA carriers flying the 320, MD80 or 737. And it appears that most year one pilots at the ALPA carriers no matter what the seat make about 30-40 an hour. Of course that's on probabtion and comparing apples to oranges. So let's see. Checking some of the other year two captain payrates on APC it appears that United-119 and USAir-113. WOW, huge difference.

CE750

one word.. (ok two)..

-Work Rules

-BK pay rates.. Both of those airlines are well on their way back to better pay (mind you, its still better than VA now, $95/hr vs $119 IS a HUGE difference, especially with the work rules at UAL)

face it, VA is a bottom feeder.

CE750

NWA is paying $146/hr

AAA is paying $123/hr


both first year pay, both BK pay rates..

B757200ER

No they're not, Cessna750. You can't get hired as an A320 Captain at NWA or UAL or JetBlue, like the previous poster said. And VA pays better than many other airlines, so it will be a big step UP in pay/benefits for pilots coming from bad charter airline jobs or regional jobs.

ryane946

I think for the first time in my life I am actually rooting for Southwest and JetBlue. They both announced service to San Francisco in the last few months. San Francisco is not a low cost market. Whatever low cost customers there are, I am hoping they are sucked up by these two airlines.

I am from the San Francisco area. Having VA here would be good for the local economy (their headquarters are in the town I was born in and now live 10 minutes away from now). It would be great for SFO which has seen traffic decline below airports like PHX, LAS, DTW...

But I just can't support them. The foreign ownership scares me a little. But the fact that they are planning a low cost carrier that is only less cost than EVERY OTHER AIRLINE because their labor rates are less, I just can't support them. If you want to look at some low cost carriers with middle of the road payscales, look at Alaska, Air Tran, Frontier... JetBlue is lower than it should be (decent for the airbus, way too low for the EMB-190). And you can't compare VA's rates to that of the legacies. They have all taken about 40% pay cuts in the last few years. Wait until the next contract talks come around and you will see their pay skyrocket. Do you think VA is planning a 30% raise in the next 5 years (over their current pay scale)?? NO WAY!!!

But I am happy that they have still been denied the right to fly. I am happy that they are taking deliveries of A320's and they must need to pay for them. I am happy that they are paying more overhead every single day. Tick tock. I hope they never get DOT permission to fly.


Oh, and for all of you that say VA is a better job than all of the legacies... I laugh at that. Whatever, I am glad you guys are taking all the crappy aviation jobs, leaving the GOOD aviation jobs for people like me. Lets talk whose career is doing better when you are capt on the A320 and I am capt of the 777.

Skyone

Sir, I don't think anyone is saying that VA is better than all of the legacies. What many are saying is that it appears, at first blush, that VA one day may be a real contender. So you wait on the legacy, sit f/o for say 15 years and then tell us how much better off you might have been. Or on the other hand, VA may one day be flying the A380 in a seamless round the world flight. Laughable, maybe, but who would have thought 30 some years ago that Pan Am and TWA and Eastern would be fond memories, and 20 years ago DAL and NWA would be in bankruptcy together. How about that bottom feeder FedEX when they first started flying-Falcon 20s? And huh, where are they today? Yeah, I'm sure those guys that started with FedEx in the late 70s (bottom fed Falcons again) are sorry they didn't go with Eastern or Braniff and just knew they were going to fly one of those Braniff 747s.

Don't forget how lousy a job those SWA pilots have just flying their itty bitty 73s around. And who but some idiot would have ever gone to work for a little startup out of Love Field flying some beat up 73-200s.

Oh, and BTW that pure bottom feeder ValuJet (AirTran) now pays a higher rate for a B717 captain than Delta pays their international 767 captains.

And don't forget the branding of Branson's empire. That doesn't hold any water anywhere, does it?

Keep Dreaming,
S1