Recently, Emirates reported a record profit, and declared itself the world’s most profitable airline. To celebrate this, the airline is offering staff a 22-week basic salary bonus. When I write about the economics of Gulf carriers, people will often say things like ”well they pay their employees peanuts, so of course they can more easily…
Continue reading: How Much Do Emirates Flight Attendants Earn? You Might Be Surprised
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35K per year - and paying no taxes and getting housing paid is pretty phenomenal.
In Germany this would equal 65K in income, and if you live in a major city like Munich you easily pay 1500/month just for a tiny flat in the suburbs.
In Greece the average net (!) income is 18K/year, in Italy 29K/year etc.
So I would say Emirate's flight attendants are quite "wealthy".
This is super interesting. To provide some context can you give us an idea of what they earn after five years or something like that?
I remember on a flight a cabin crew member working the bar, really opened up to me. He super nice and said he had been working for Emirates for 20 years. He was a civil engineer by training and admitted he didn't particularly enjoy the job and travel is not appealing to him. But a job with good compensation and the ability to go home a lot with was appealing to him. He has a wife and four kids in Cairo and can easily stop home for a few days in between trips. He's basically never in his Emirates provided apartment other than the required rest period before a flight.
It would be interesting to know why Emirates pay their Flight Attendant much more than in most countries in relative terms.
It's usually a slightly above minimum wage job (with perks) . For instance. In Switzerland, Swiss FA starts at 57k Usd which is lower than the minimum wage of some Cantons... So cleaning staff at the airport in Geneva get paid more than junior Swiss cabin crews.
I don't think people quite understand that when an airline is owned by a UAE government or sovereign wealth fund, money isn't even a thing. Sure, Emirates is super global, upscale and actually makes a profit. But they are also not subject to accounting like other companies because they're privately owned. They can say they made a profit or had a loss but what big 4 accounting firm is verifying that? None of them.
All in all, folks will still complain because the UAE has a human rights history as poor as the United States. But they actually pay their employees pretty decent. Now, the real takeaway should be, the US couldn't even dream of doing the same for their FA's. Because they suck.
If US based FA's were held to the same standards as Emirates FA's, there wouldn't be any US FA's.
Ben you touched on a very real thing: Unable to afford to use the free travel benefits. I flew for just under 2 years. I was a Registered Nurse at the time of my hire with Pan Am. Flying reserve made picking up nursing shifts in surgery (my specialty) impossible. I found that I simply didnt have the money to breeze from MIA to HKG...CDG (fill in the blank) and that and a couple other reasons accounted for my leaving (the financially troubled) Pan Am.
I am sure MANY junior F/A's in the US are in similar situations.
What kind of housing is provided?
Luxury condos? Or dorms / shared appartments?
Just curious.
Salary is not attractive
Compared to British u s and SIN carriers
Bonus is good payment
Employer gives only one ticket per employee whereas other carriers
Like SQ CX AI give more no of passages
EK bribed civil aviation officials and
Got traffic rights to all gateway cities
And using DXB as hub carried all
West bound flights depriving the
Revenue of local carriers
Indian passengers were the bread and
Butter for them to build an empire
And India continued to be source of
Income for them
Four airlines are corrupt
Ek Flydubai QR and ME
The ‘no taxes’ is attractive if you are a citizen of just about any other country in the world except the US. American citizens are taxed on worldwide income regardless of where it was earned and irrespective of whether the country where you earned it taxes you or not.
But do they eventually make six figures a year once they top out like their US counterparts?
Foreign income of US citizens is taxed only above a certain threshold.
Cabin crew’s income will not come close to it so it’s all tax free. For 2024, that exclusion was $126,500.00 per person.
American who work for Emirates would still have to pay US income tax unlike most other nationalities, who only have to pay income tax if they live in their home country.
What country is that?
A case can be made that the best country on earth is Singapore, Japan, Norway, USA, Canada, Australia.
Except Americans working abroad for Emirates very likely wouldn't have to pay US tax. Foreign income is exempt from US income taxes if it is less than $126k per year. As stated in the article, a flight attendant would certainly be making less than that.
The US has never made on the "Top ten countries to live in the world" list. Canada, Australia and all Scandinavian countries among others are on the list.
This is misleading though, as it does not take into account the cost of living. Dubai has become extremely expensive, so your purchasing power with US$2900/month or so is simply not great.
Own bedroom in shared apartment:
https://keepingupwithkerrycom.wordpress.com/2020/03/27/tour-of-my-crew-accommodation/
Emirates is audited by PWC.
Key Matters: Timing of recognition of revenue, Skywards (particularly unused miles balances) and costs regarding airframe/engine conditions at the end of the leases.
Americans tend to have a naive faith in audit reports from the Big4.
But even if the audit is rigorous, the big question about airlines with such ownership is about implicit subsidies, E.g. How much does the airline pay the hub airport.
As U.S. FA’s appear to be treated so badly by second rate U.S. airlines, why do U.S. FA’s not flock to EQ? Could it be the lack of other language skills or simply that they would not meet the EQ high standards?
Sometimes it is ‘hit and miss’ if a post appears, perplexing, never mind I will try again.
As U.S. FA’s appear to be treated less well by the second rate U.S. airlines they work for, one is surprised that U.S. wannabe FA’s are not flocking to EQ.
Could it be that in general the U.S. FA’s are less well able to meet the EQ high standards required?
They make quite a bit. A few years ago I met an Emirates FA, which was 13 years in her job, and about to move to a Finance role within Emirates. She said, that her total pay would be less in her new role.
While pay at EK is certainly not bad, Ben presents the pay and benefits in a very favorable light.
For starters, based on EK's flight schedule the job is very taxing. A large number of flights depart during night time, which is very stressful to the body. Also, Emirates does mostly long haul flying, which is stressful to the body as well.
Entry Level FA receive free shared accommodation (no housing allowance, there are only few exceptions, e.g if you have immediate family in the UAE or are married). Overnight guests are not allowed, so no overnight visits from boyfriend or girlfiend.
The "huge" discounts are in the usual range for corporate discounts. Nothing earth shattering.
Also ID90-tickets are relatively cheap (in line with ZED-Tickets in other airlines), but certainly not free.
So working for EK can certainly be exciting for a new FA, it is certainly not a workers paradise where money grows on trees.
You can't run a premium airline without paying decent wages, especially when working for that airline means moving to Dubai and do some rather crazy operations, so that figures 🙂 But at the same time, the pay isn't crazy good either. Just a sort of an average I'd expect for a position like this.
No they don't. EK flight attendants top out around $70,000 dollars a year, while their American counterparts can easily make $120,000 - $150,000 a year at top scale flying 100 hours a month. Even pilots at EK don't make what their US counterparts make. Pilots at American, Delta, and United from first year pilots through top scale are paid more than EK pilots.
I'm sure EK employees are happy with 22 weeks worth of pay in profit sharing that is huge but at the end of the year pilots and FA's at the majors here in the US make more money.
I am not a FA, I never have been nor ever will be. I am however, a very regular F/J passenger who has taken an average of 25-30 international flights per year for the past two decades. I respect approximately 98% of all FA’s who I have had the pleasure to be served by.
From a passenger’s perspective there are many FA’s who stand out to be exceptional, most are extremely pleasant professionals who carry out their duties to the complete satisfaction of most passengers. A few from the lesser airlines can be downright obnoxious to every passenger.
One is certain that an FA’s job becomes much more enjoyable when all of the passengers have disembarked, especially the obnoxious, needy individuals. Too many times to accurately recall, I have exchanged glances with a diligent FA, while rolling our eyes at the antics of the ‘entitled’ passenger. Why, Oh why, do some men believe that they are suddenly ‘Gods gift to women’ simply because a young attractive FA smiles at them?
The Arps of this world will probably never experience anything other than a Y cabin seat on a domestic low cost carrier, therefore, they can only dream of an attentive FA serving their luncheon on say an EK or SQ international flight.
LtoF, one has no idea about the accuracy of your post, therefore, I will say just two things …. In my experience the quality of the average EK FA, far outstrips that of their U.S. counterparts. As for the quality of the pilot's, the air incidents and near misses in U.S. airspace speaks volumes.
When you consider the diversity of EK's flight attendants in terms of their countries of origin, the total compensation many receive from the company is phenomenal. For example: the average Thai with a college degree makes about $800/month...in BKK, every young Thai (under 30) I know still lives with their parents - including some who are married - because it is just too expensive to live on one's own comfortably on 25,000-30,000 baht per month. Considering how many Filipino, Indian, Egyptian, Eastern European, and other nationalities from relatively low-income countries are represented, this total compensation is high. Even for us Brits, if we're not living in London, £26,000-£30,000 without having to pay taxes or for housing is pretty decent for the first few years...
It's worth remembering too that you have to live in Dubai. No going home when you feel like it. Absolutely NO going home during the 8 weeks training. Layovers are usually only 24hrs so after 2hrs pre take off and 2 hours post landing then add your flight time, you get to your hotel, order room service then sleep until you leave for your return flight. You can be in that tin can for 15 or 20hrs. Make up, hair, nails and uniform have to be impeccable so take off 3hrs to get ready. Arriving at hotel to leaving can be 18hrs. Staff dont know what day or date it is half the time