Assuming a two hour sector fuel would be around four or five tons? So around £5k in fuel – assume fuel is 40-50% of costs (?), then 10-12k may be an ok estimate?
…assume fuel is 40-50% of costs…
30% or less.
It is interesting that at the moment another large low cost airline is recruting pilots, they have a much more reasonable attitude to their staff and the pay is more or less the same as Ryanair.
The airline makes a lot of money and guess what ! ………………….. About 70% of the pilots recruited in the last year or so are ex-Ryanair.
It all goes to show you don’t have to treat your staff like s**t to make money! it is more about good management.
Which airline is that?
I’d suppose Easyjet.
It all goes to show you don’t have to treat your staff like s**t to make money! it is more about good management.
Southwest in the US is the best proof for that.
Easyjet ? Not a bad airline that treat their staff with respect and well managed but Orange !!!…………. It’s so 90’s.
For the A320-200 (B777-300) Fuel Costs are about 23% (32%) of the DOC. Around 26% (27%) go to deduction and insurance, around 10% (10%) for maintenance, 11%(9%) for the crew, 27% (21%) on fees and about 3% (1%) of the DOC is attributed to delays.
With 180$/barrel fuel cost in summer 2008, the DOC are around 62 US$ per 1000 passenger km for the A320. With the fuel prices of January 2009 (62 $/b) the DOC is around 44 $/1000 pass.-km.
This isn’t too exact, but for the discussion it might be sufficient enough for a well educated guess :-)
Cheers,
Especially for ready entry captains, they are quite attractive. Good pay, stable roster, home every evening. As I wrote above: There is far worse than them in Europe. But they paved the way and are ultimately responsible (in my opinion) for degrading the professions of pilot and flight attendant from respected professionals to day laborers.
According to the program what you describe is far from the reality. But the pilots’ salaries is not the worst part.
They say that Ryanair compiles a list of all pilots working for them with the amount of fuel they fly with. If you are in the top of the list ( meaning you request less fuel to fly), your name is printed in green. On the other end, (more fuel requested, meaning better safety margins), it is printed in red and your career within the company turns nasty : you’re based far from home, don’t get the leaves you request etc… resulting in most pilots flying with fuel amounts they’re not comfortable with.
They report a day when the weather was bad in Madrid and flights had to divert to Valencia. Out of 17 planes in this case, 3 declared an emergency for low fuel and and all of them were Ryanair.
The program also says that most pilots are not hired by the company, but have to create their own single man companies and then get a contract between Ryanair and their companies. The problem is that they are their own employers and have to deal with employers problems such as liability. They get no money when they don’t fly, resulting in captains flying while they are sick or bothered by important personal problems. Although it is breaking the law, 2 captains state that they have already flown whereas they were not fit to do it.
The program also says that the pilots are trapped actually. Young pilots have huge loans to pay and they have to borrow some more money to get their type training because Ryanair doesn’t pay for training. Then, they start to work for ryanair, with huge debts. They have no choice then but to comply with any request the company may have.
(Edited to correct english mistakes)
Young pilots have huge loans to pay and they have to borrow some more money to get their type training because Ryanair doesn’t pay for training. Then, they start to work for ryanair, with huge debts. They have no choice then but to comply with any request the company may have.
That is true for most “young pilots”, not only at Ryanair. The guys and girls that pay 27k pounds for their TR at Ryanair/CAE are in fact better of than those who buy a (generally slightly cheaper) TR on their own in the hope of improving their chances in a selection – at least, the Ryanair pilots know they will be able to fly.
Please note that I’m not a supporter of these practices, but that’s the reality in today’s pilot job market.
A mate of mine won a sponsorship with Flybe about 3 years ago. He eventually got all ticks in boxes (ATPL, IR etc.) despite a whole carry on with Cabair going under (Flybe’s accredited training provider) and he was then on a 3 year retainer with them whilst he waited for a job (ie he’d have to repay the “other half” of the training cost of circa £50k) if he accepted a job with another airline and then Flybe offered him a job which he then turned down. He hadn’t done his TR so he was, to all intents and purposes, unemployable on the basis that no other airline would take him on given his financial commitment to Flybe and he couldn’t afford to gamble the £30k on a TR for say, a 737 or A320 to fly for Jet2, Easyjet or Ryanair etc. Out of the blue, he was offered a job with Flybe very recently (almost at the end of the 3 year tie-in period) and is now doing his TR.
On reflection, he was lucky to get a sponsorship deal with Flybe in his late 30’s but I’m not sure he would have gone down the same route again if he’d known how the company were going to mess him about. It seems that low cost carriers have quite a poor reputation for shenanigans like this. If I was in my early 20’s with no wife, kids, mortgage or debts, I’d probably entertain an employer like Ryanair too but its a young mans game and you can’t help but think they (and others) take advantage of the desperation of some of the people who come forward who want to fly for them.
