Pilot careers in corporate aviation can differ
greatly from the airlines. Corporate pilots are often on-call and work
infrequent schedules. They usually spend less hours flying than their airline
counterparts, but they can earn higher salaries despite the difference in
flying time. The higher initial salaries at the entry level and home-centric
lifestyle are probably the most appealing aspects of corporate aviation to a
pilot otherwise looking at plunging into the regional airlines. Other draws
might be a more varied option of aircraft available to fly, or the possible
variety in destinations.
Corporate
flight departments are meant to save the company time and money. They certainly
get a bad reputation for being used to whisk senior executives and family
around the world, but the almighty dollar is inevitably the deciding factor in
whether or not a company will maintain a flight department. Companies without enough
need or enough revenue to sustain a flight department might invest in a
fractional ownership endeavor to utilize flight benefits without the headache.
An
example of such a fractional ownership operation is Corporate Eagle. Operating
out of Pontiac, MI (KPTK) Corporate Eagle is a fractional management company
that owns and operates a fleet of aircraft to serve private and corporate
clients who either do not want or cannot justify an in-house flight department.
They have a fleet of 13 aircraft consisting of Beechcraft 200’s, Hawker 700’s
and 800XP’s, and Falcon 2000’s. Salaries start at $46,000 (about twice the
average first year regional airline pay) and minimum requirements are slightly
more stringent in the hourly requirements than what the regional airlines require,
except that an ATP certificate is not mandatory and 1200 total hours is the
minimum. It is reassuring to know that opportunities like these exist in the
event that someone might not want to go to the regional airlines to build their
initial turbine time and build up total time in order to find a corporate job.
References:
Career options. (n.d.). Retrieved February 13, 2015,
from http://www.aopa.org/letsgoflying/dream/whyfly/careers.html
Corporate Eagle. (n.d.). Retrieved
February 13, 2015, from http://www.corporateeagle.com/
Donnelly, B. (2012, August 6). Business Aviation:
The Unfair Advantage. Retrieved February 13, 2015, from http://www.forbes.com/sites/businessaviation/2012/08/06/business-aviation-the-unfair-advantage/
Job Post: Corporate Eagle - First
Officer/Second-In-Command. (n.d.). Retrieved February 13, 2015, from
http://aviation.wmich.edu/jobs-scholarships-and-internship-postings/bid/355164/Job-Post-Corporate-Eagle-First-Officer-Second-In-Command
I've heard good things about Corporate Eagle up in Pontiac. One of Eagle's former instructors recently got hired there and he only had about 800 hours total time. It's true that he is making much more than the regional pay (for the first few years), but it takes much longer to upgrade. Some might say the lifestyle is worth it in the end.
ReplyDeleteYes he got in with much lower time and is making triple what a regional first officer would make in his first could years. But with the turbine time and type ratings that he has received he is very marketable in the world of corporate aviation and can easily find a job in the left seat or a higher paying right seat job with the pilot shortage and still maintain a higher salary than a regional pilot. It is not until you have a few years in the majors that your salary would exceed that of someone in the corporate world with the same about of years under their belt.
DeleteI think that the lifestyle would be worth the difference in pay. As a corporate pilot, you get to travel to more destinations, and you get to "vacation" while you are at the destination. If sounds like a good gig to me!
ReplyDeleteThe opportunities and benefits that corporate aviation has to offer along with fitting in one of those new jets definitely attracts me toward considering that career path. However, a recent conversation told me that job security is not as good as the airlines but that could be an opinion from a bad experience
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