Show Me The Money

For those of you who are thinking about getting into this business, wondering about if there is any money to be made. The answer is mostly no. Companies are cutting back and farming out the labor to contract companies such as Tramco in Seattle. Pay is down and benefits are being whittled away. There is, however, one way to make some money working on airplanes at an airline. In order to make decent money you have to be willing to work weekends and holidays.

Working the weekends is like a fact of life in the airline industry. Until your seniority is built up, which is going to take a while, you will most likely have weekdays off. Even those guys who have weekends off will have to work some weekends if they really want to be in a money making position. It always seems like things are breaking on the weekends, we on the line attribute this to low seniority flight crews. The work is lousy and often times sucks real bad but it is what it is-an opportunity to make some cash.

Another idiosyncrasy about the airline biz is working on holidays. Most guys want off on holidays and have put vacation days in the book. While this may seem unfair it is also an opportunity for those of us who want to work a little extra to make some extra pay. Holidays like Christmas are a great for situations such as this. Mechanics call in sick and those on vacation leave a vacuum for those willing to work.

So if someone asks if there is any money in this industry let them know: Sure but you will have to be willing to work when most people don't want to.