I was wondering what the average pilot who works for a Regional Airport would make starting out. Personal Experiences are encouraged. The numbers ive seen online seem very skewed.
Emirhan,
The reason you’re probably seeing such “skewed” numbers I suspect is because the salaries (particularly first year) have changed dramatically within the last year. Not long ago starting pay at most Regionals was around $20K, in some cases even less. Unfortunately for the airlines a perfect storm of events (retirements, increased required minimums and mergers) created a pilot shortage. Like most things in business when supply is low, demand goes up and so do the salaries. In the last year starting salaries at most Regionals have almost doubled to around $38k. In addition many of the Regionals are also offering hiring bonuses of up to $20k bringing first year to almost $60k. Not to bad for an entry level position.
Adam
Hi Adam,
Do you know how much First Officer at Skywest make?
Huy,
SkyWest lists their first year pay as $36.50hr with a 76hr per month guarantee meaning this is the minimum you’ll make every moth. Yarden actually flies for SkyWest so I’m sure he can chime in with more details.
Adam
Hey Huy,
As Adam said the minimum pay at SkyWest is $36.50 x 75.6hrs minimum monthly guarantee. That comes out to $2760/mo at the minimum. Depending on what you choose for aircraft and base, your monthly flying amount may change (no less than the minimum 75.6hrs of course). I try to fly as much as I can, targeting around 100-110 hours every month.
Yarden
Great to know. The online communities that i’ve been apart of usually tell me i have no need to worry about wages but rather the way of life a pilot lives.
Yarden,
I remember reading in the FARs that maximum flight time is 100 hours per calendar month or 1000 per year. How do you get 100-110 a month and stay legal?
Kamrin
Kamrin,
You’re correct BUT airline pay often includes “soft time”. Soft time is time when you’re not actually flying but still getting paid. Things like deadheading, minimum daily guarantee (many airlines have min pay for a day, say 4.5hr, if you only fly 3 hrs one day you’re still paid the 4.5), vacation and training fall into soft time. By doing some smart bidding and trading it’s easy to get over 100hrs of “credit”.
Adam
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Learn something new everyday. Thanks Adam!
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Kamrin.
The rules have changed and are a bit more complex than the old 100 hours in a month. That being said, there are a lot of things that don’t count as flight time, but still generate pay. Deadheading, training, vacation and a few other things can generate pay hours, but do not generate flight time hours.
Chris
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I know this is an old post but it has me curious as to how difficult it is to fly 100 hours a month and how many day from home that can translate into
Carson,
Not difficult at all to fly 100hrs (or get close). Problem is how many days you work to get there can vary considerably depending on the operation. If you’re just doing CLE-ORD one hour turns it’s going mean ALOT of days at work. If you’re doing longer flights it’ll be less.
While not a Regional, my airline Hawaiian is a great example. I fly InterIsland which is short flights. Daily flight time is usually about 5hrs a day so to hit 100hrs you need to work 20 days. But if you’re on the widebody you can do 4 PEK trips which are 2 days work 25hrs each and only work 8 days a month. Make sense?
Adam
Flying 100 hours per month can be hard. I usually end up around 90 hours and that takes about 18 days to do.