The Larger Impact of American Airlines Giving Regional Pilots a Big Pay Raise
Skift Take
Pilots at two of American Airlines regional affiliates now earn more than some of their peers at discounters like Spirit. This could be the change needed to fix the pilot shortage but it could come with unintended consequences.
The amount that pilots make at America’s airlines just got turned on its head. Regional carriers, the farm team for pilots dreaming of a job at the big airlines, have long been among the worst paid in the industry. Not anymore.
New agreements between American Airlines' subsidiaries Envoy and Piedmont Airlines — both fly under the American Eagle brand — and their pilots union, the Air Line Pilots Association or ALPA, will see entry-level first officers earning $90 an hour and more senior crew members even more. To put that in perspective, a pilot hired to the same job at discounters Frontier Airlines or Spirit Airlines earn around $62 an hour or, if that Envoy or Piedmont pilot moved up to a job at American, they would start at the same rate — $90 an hour.
In other words, American's decision could have sweeping impact, both in recruiting during a debilitating pilot shortage but also potentially on decisions by airlines to continue to fly smaller 50-seat j
