Industry Research - Executive Pay vs. Pilot Pay

Before I give you the numbers I need to explain how I calculated them.

Thanks to AirlinePilotCentral.com's pay scale tables I found the average pay scale for First Officers, and Captains of each of the companies that I discussed earlier this week. After that, I simply did some simple division to find out how many times these front line employee's salaries would need to be multiplied to get remotely close to the pay of the top executives that are, more or less, driving many of these companies downward.

• Skywest - CEO's Total Compensation is 52x that of an average First Officer's annual compensation and 23X that of an average Captain's annual compensation.
  

• Atlantic Southeast Airlines - COO's Total Compensation is 16x that of an average First Officer's annual compensation and 7X that of an average Captain's annual compensation.
  

• Republic Airways Holding - CEO's Total Compensation is 67X that of an average First Officer's annual compensation and 29X that of an average Captain's annual compensation
  

• ExpressJet Holding - CEO'S Total Compensation is 29X that of an average First Officer's annual compensation and 13X that of an average Captain's annual compensation
  

• Pinnacle Airlines Corp - CEO's Total Compensation is 44X that of an average First Officer's annual compensation and 15X that of an average Captain's annual compensation
  

• Delta Airlines - CEO's Total Compensation is 47X that of an average First Officer's annual compensation and 26X that of an average Captain's annual compensation
  

• United Airlines - CEO's Total Compensation is 164X that of an average First Officer's annual compensation and 84X that of an average Captain's annual compensation
  

• American Airlines - CEO's Total Compensation is 68X that of an average First Officer's annual compensation and 49X that of an average Captain's annual compensation
  

• Continental Airlines - CEO's Total Compensation is 103X that of an average First Officer's annual compensation and 75X that of an average Captain's annual compensation.
  

It's amazing to see that Atlantic Southeast Airlines - one of the few right now who are competing somewhat well in this industry, meeting performance goals to include, but not limited to On-Time performance and Completion factor - that the head of the company is only making 7x what the average line Captain is making. When compared with other companies whose performance is laughable at best is just shocking that we have allowed these corporate failures to continue down their path of self-righteousness and failure with such funds available to them.

One look at United's Glenn Tilton should really start to send alarm bells ringing. Considering we are all fighting to make "Industry Standard" wages with our collective bargaining agreements, and then to see that fat cat rolling around in the cash is simply hilarious.

Industry Research - Executive Pay

• Skywest Inc. - Jerry Atkin, CEO and President: $1,568,287

• Atlantic Southeast Airlines, Subsidiary of Skywest Inc. - Bradford Holt, President and COO: $502,806

• Republic Airways Holdings Inc. - Bryan BedFord, CEO and President: $2,025,314

• ExpressJet Holdings Inc. - James Ream, CEO and President: $894,461

• Pinnacle Airlines Corp - Philip Trenary, CEO and President: $1,209,156

• Delta Airlines Inc - Richard Anderson, CEO and Director: $3,329,488

• UAL Corporation (United Airlines) - Glenn Tilton, CEO and President: $10,314,769

• AMR Corporation (American Airlines) - Gerard Asprey, CEO and President: $4,601,165

• Continental Airlines, Inc - Larry Kellner, CEO: $7,308,334

Just let those figures soak on your brain for a few moments. I think most of us in the aviation industry can agree that our executives should be compensated well, especially if the individual company is successful. Unfortunately for many of us, our companies are not successful - yet our executives continue to take quarterly and annual bonuses to pad their compensation packages. All the while, they're sending people out to the street because they must "re-align costs," or "cut costs." Whichever you choose.

The next industry research post will highlight the average salaries and compensation packages for the front-line employees of these companies.

Compensation figures are based off of data from BusinessWeek. Figures are total compensation, annual, short, and long term compensations.

Life on reserve

Is fine.

I get to sit at home an enjoy my new toy.



What a transformation the office has taken. Got rid of the old 17inch CRT monitor that took up about half of the desk space. Now this thing is mounted to the wall, and a load of free space is available on the desk for various stuff - like school, or work.

It's great.

Also, picked up a new hard drive - 320gigs worth to store music, videos, movies, and pictures. This computers been in the need for a slight upgrade for a while.

Both of these two things were birthday presents that I ended up picking up from the various cash and check gifts I've received.

But anyway - Reserve. . .

Went on call yesterday, and no phone call whatsoever (yet). I stay on call through Sunday. I'm hoping they call, because honestly I need to fly and build some more time just in case my company joins the "Furlough" club. Only time will tell.

Nothing special to report

Well - nothing special to report means - nothing special to report.

On a three day trip across the southeast, with a visit to Cleveland and St. Louis. Spending two lovely nights in too smaller towns in Georgia; spectacular.

Anyway - I'm really not the type to carry around a camera in the cockpit, but I have managed to snag a couple photos, two today, and one from a few weeks ago.



The 100th CRJ-200, flew this one on one of my IOE trips - I think.



The lower Appalachians as we made our way up to Cleveland. Love how the stratus outlines the hills.



The ass end of a 757.

I can tie Shoe-Laces in the sky

Yup, I sure can.

It was a beautiful morning coming in from Dothan. As we set up on the arrival we were vectored for the north approach on runway 26R. On the downwind leg (parallel to the runway but going the opposite direction of landing traffic) the approach end looked great, runway visual ranges were greater than what we needed for the approach so it looked like all was going to end well and we would make it into the gate on time.

Finally on the last portion of the approach (final approach), we switched over to tower and they told us the bad news. The runway visual range for the touchdown zone had decreased below what was required for us to legally shoot the approach.

A missed approach, turn to the northwest, and reconfiguring for the approach to the southern most runway finally yielded us the result we needed.

Was a beautiful morning to be out though. Got off just moments after sunrise.

Last night's approach into Dothan was enjoyable as well. I'm finally starting to feel a good sense of enjoyment out of the work - it's just unfortunate that it may not last for a while considering the sad state of the industry. So be it.

The sunset is approaching

AirTran - 180
Comair - 300
ExpressJet - 400
Colgan - 60
PSA - 27
United - 950

And that's just the short list of companies who are going to be placing pilots out of work in the fall. This industry is in for some serious changes.

Just a shame, an absolute shame. This current down turn will make 9/11 look like a one day event in regards to the way this industry changes.

For over a few decades we really had had far too much capacity out there for the consumer. Capacity must be reduced if any of the remaining companies are able to become stable and stay in business.

I'm sure those numbers above won't be the last. Many more will follow, it's only a matter of time.

Weather Forecasting

I really can't explain it, but recently I have had an increasing urge to get back into the meteorology game. Perhaps it is because of the economic condition of the country and how that all will roll down hill and smack me right on the forehead - along with putting a couple hundred, if not thousands of pilots out of work.

Recently I had an offer from an old co-worker who runs an Air National Guard weather shop in Florida to come down and work for him, only catch is that I'd have to enlist in the Florida ANG for a 6 year period. 15,000 sign on bonus, and flexibility to work around my real world schedule, and if needed a full time position (if I am placed out of work for any period of time).

It is extremely tempting, extremely.

I enjoyed the work, was great at it (2006 ACC Weather Airmen of the Year), and absolutely enjoyed the challenge of developing a sound forecast for troops in combat and fighter crews in the CENTAF/CENTCOM AOR.

My time as a forecaster were great, but more than anything I enjoyed the ability of supervising a team of forecasters. Having the talent and determination to make sure we all put out a quality forecast product meant a lot to me considering who we worked for. Troops in combat depended on a timely forecast of thunderstorms, high winds, and visibility limiting events (dust storms). Fighter crews relied on the very same items for departing onto missions - and ultimately - their safe return back to home base, along with whatever specialized forecast product that was developed for their mission enroute.

Forecasting for the desert is more complex than what people think. Hot, dusty, and hot really do not satisfy the full range of weather scenarios. Yes, it does rain, yes it does snow. The region is the size of two United States, with mountains, water sources, and an extremely tropical climate. They get weather that isn't hot and windy, and dusty.

Nevertheless, this blog entry comes from another 2 hours and 40 minutes of remaining ready reserve. Part of me wishes they will call me to go fly a trip someplace, and start eating into my 4 days of availability.

Anyway - til next time.