Posted on 05/11/2007 3:49:46 PM PDT by Paleo Conservative
SINGAPORE: It was suggested that flying different type of aircraft was "as easy as changing cars". The revelation of the pay scales for Singapore Airlines’ pilots, said to be among the world’s highest, raised a few eyebrows.Such nuggets of information — offered by SIA management at a court hearing to settle a pay dispute between the airline and its pilots’ union — seem to have ruffled more than a few feathers among the pilots.
Following the feedback it received after the court hearing, SIA thought it necessary to send a letter to all 1,800 of the company’s pilots on Wednesday.
Marked “Confidential and Restricted”, the three-paragraph letter, obtained by TODAY, was signed by senior vice-president for flight operations, Captain Gerard Yeap, and senior vice-president for human resources Loh Meng See.
Harking back to the three-day hearing at the Industrial Arbitration Court last month, the letter said: “We received feedback that the pilots were unhappy with the way the company presented the case and felt that the role of SIA pilots had been belittled.”
It went on to “clarify and assure” all pilots that SIA management had no intention to “trivialise the professionalism of our pilots, nor to sensationalise the issues in public”.
This is the second such message believed to have been sent to SIA pilots, following one issued via email on April 25 — the final day of the court hearing — by Capt Yeap.
Stressing the importance of not overreacting to “singular statements” made in court, Capt Yeap warned in his email that media reports might take certain arguments out of context.
“In the course of delivery in court and in our attempt to explain technicalities to non-aviators, it is regrettable that some of the arguments might have come across as oversimplification of our profession. I would like you to know that this was never the intent,” he wrote.
SIA and its pilots’ union, the Air Line Pilots Association of Singapore (Alpa-S), had gone to court to settle their longstanding salary dispute.
The union, which represents 90 per cent of the company’s pilots, wants a higher salary to be paid to its pilots handling the new Airbus 380 (A380) superjumbo plane because of its bigger seating capacity.
SIA, on the other hand, insists that flying the aircraft is no different from flying any of the three other smaller-capacity planes in its fleet — the Boeing 747, Boeing 777 and Airbus 345.
Eyebrows were raised on the first day of the hearing when SIA disclosed the breakdown of its pilots’ pay, and again when chief A380 pilot Captain Robert Ting, who is also SIA’s vice-president for flight operations, told a packed courthouse that he could easily fly the A380 “with my finger tips”. He also compared flying different aircraft to changing cars.
At the end of the court hearing, SIA proposed to increase its salary caps for the vast majority of its pilots, but Alpa-S president Capt P James rejected the offer because it still fell short of the union’s demands.
Pilots who spoke to TODAY on the condition of anonymity felt that the management could have painted a more accurate picture.
Said one Boeing 777 captain: “ Take the point SIA made about needing less skill to operate the A380. It’s not about the skill, but about managing the flight, the passengers and being accountable.”
To splash out details of the pay pilots’ scales was also “unfair and uncalled for”, he added. “The breakdown of the salaries was not accurate, because not everyone earns that amount.”
Another Boeing 777 captain said the outcome will have “long-term implications” for all A380 pilots worldwide. “SIA will be the first in the world to fly this plane, so other countries will be looking at us and using that standard to set their salaries accordingly.”
The Industrial Arbitration Court has already accepted its final submissions from both sides, and the ball is now in the court’s court. The dispute needs to be resolved before the arrival of the A380 jumbo in October. - TODAY/fa
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If they base the pay on the profitability of the type, should 380 pilots be paid less?
Why didn’t they just go for the hazardous duty pay adder for flying an Airbus?
Profitability to whom? The airline or the manufacturer?
If the A380 is never delivered, do the pilots get paid for just sitting around?
Maybe someone should inform Captain Ting that the reason he can fly the 380 “with my fingertipe” is because the controls are hydraulic, and the feel is completely artificial.
I guess now they’ll be boosting the hydraulic pressure on their 777’s to justify a pay cut...
But the hydraulics are controlled by the fly by wire system. There is no direct linkage between the cockpit controls and the control surfaces of the plane.
The airline. There is no chance it will ever be profitable for the manufacturer.
Ah, my first wife’s new husband.
Huh?
Oh, they mean smaller compared to the A 380, I guess.
It’s all relative. The director of IAH says that IAH is ready to handle the A380. The Antonov AN-225 flys to IAH quite often to pick up oil industry cargoes without causing interference with aircraft moving on other runways or taxiways (that were built 40 years ago), so it can easily handle smaller planes like the A380.
I wonder if all Airbust planes have a common flight deck? I've heard that Boeing does not, so the pilots have to be trained on the different configurations. Plus there is a difference in pay for pilots who fly twin aisle versus single aisle planes and a premium for pilots who can fly both.
But the Neanderthal is sensitive, isn’t ‘it’!? /sarc
The entire industry bases pilot pay on the size of the aircraft; bigger aircraft bring in more revenue, the consequences of mistakes are greater, their operation requires more planning, and the aircraft are more complex.
from the article: He also compared flying different aircraft to changing cars
Another horrible analogy belittling his (pilot) profession. When something goes wrong you don't just pull over. The training programs to gain a type rating in each aircraft mentioned are months long, and are not interchangeable. Pilots almost never (possible exception: flight test pilots) hold simultaneous currency ratings in the aforementioned dissimilar aircraft.
There's no yoke on an Airbus A380 cockpit. It has a joystick on the side.
True, I forgot about that difference. Reinforces my point.
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