CRJ, EMB Pilots/ FA's Making More $$$ Barely...

While starting salaries for pilots at U.S. regional airlines have historically been low and accepted as a fact of life, that paradigm finally appears to be shifting.


It has long been an industry truth that pay rates for first officers at the feeder carriers were unfavorable, a point that was illuminated by the 2009 crash of a Colgan Air Q400 (Continental 3407) near Buffalo, N.Y. Newspaper articles at the time described the 24-year-old copilot’s cross-country commute from the Seattle-area home she shared with her family to her Newark Airport home base that morning to catch the doomed flight. Her annual salary was $16,000 a year.

Seven years later the compensation has improved, albeit only somewhat. Last August the Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA) issued a press release that provided a sampling of estimated first-year pilot base salaries exclusive of any bonuses, with Mesa Airlines offering $20,183, according to the union, while Great Lakes was listed at $29,484. In between were the three wholly owned American Airlines subsidiaries: PSA ($22,104), Envoy Air ($23,256) and Piedmont Airlines ($26,422). “While first-year salaries for pilots at regional airlines are moving in the right direction, new pilots are looking for a long-term career with growth and good quality of life,” said union president Tim Canoll at the time.

Shortly thereafter, in mid-September, there was a spate of press releases touting higher pay rates for starting pilots by Envoy Air, PSA and Piedmont. Envoy announced it “will nearly double the starting rate of pay for new hires, to nearly $38 an hour.” Likewise PSA’s release stated it would implement “an immediate 56-percent increase in first-year wages.” Piedmont noted that first-year first officers will now “earn nearly $60,000 while training and flying under the colors of Piedmont’s parent company, American Airlines.”