Korean Air Pilots Could Strike Over Massive Pay Dispute

They must be struggling on those low wages 🙂

As they say, you are only worth as much as someone is willing to pay, so if Korean wants to retain its pilots and not have them poached by Chinese carriers - it looks like they are going to have to move quite a bit from their 1.9%. Alternatively, they could be creative, and not change the base pay, but award a loyalty bonus to retain their pilots.

FYI for the ME3 US pilots the first $99,200 is tax free, if not based in the US. So taxes are still much lower.

FYI for the ME3 US pilots the first $99,200 is US tax free, if not based in the US. So tax are still much lower.

Forget about their impending strike: Korean pilots are to be avoided. Critical training deficiencies + dismissive leadership (when said deficiencies are exposed). Worse yet, Korean cockpit culture accepts the captain's judgement unconditionally, even when potentially dangerous conditions are observed by the right seat (note that this was also a problem in the U.S. 50 years ago). Unlike the U.S., however, Korea seems wholly unmotivated to change.

A Korean airline famously demonstrated their cockpit deficiencies when they kissed the seawall at SFO in 2013.

Large Korea-based carriers have for years recruited western flight instructors. The above assessment was shared by an instructor who was repeatedly chastised for bringing to light pilot training deficiencies. He resigned his post after growing tired of fighting a losing battle.

I will not fly Korea-flagged carriers (or many other airlines, for that matter). In case you value your life over the size of your PTV, few exceptions exist for stellar carriers in this part of the world. Cathay, Singapore, ANA, and JAL are indeed stellar.

If they stopped serving warm nuts in first class they could afford the raise!

Or, they can find more of the non-Korean pilots who choose Korean even though Korean's current wages are well below US carriers for example.

Something is missing here.

Still beats the mess that's going on with Lufthansa 🙂

at least, korean pilots don't fly drunk.... so i hope.

Hey Lucky, here is an article about more people being kicked off planes:

http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/lawsuit-claims-flight-ejected-men-muslim-article-1.2499843

Your numbers on pay for Emirates captains are waaaay off, even including allowances.

Lucky did one post a pic of himself in the room of an Emirates employee, wearing their uniform (don't remember if it was a captain or a FA), so I guess he has the undercover info?

Um... $140,000 is a LOT for someone living in Korea. The average pay in the whole country can't be more than $30,000/year. You're making it sound like they would barely make ends meet or something...

The EK figures are for year 1 basic salary which is a portion of the remuneration. Each subsequent year has a step increase. Most people have spent a number of years in the company before getting their command.

@ Xulu -- The salary I posted was for 10th year captain, so it's the top of the pay scale. Unless I'm missing something...

What options do i have if pilots go on strike and KE cancels all flights in my itinerary?

I got business class via JFK-ICN-SGN-ICN-JFK on mileage redeemed thru Delta.

@Lan - $30,000 is the medium income accounting for all full time workers in Korea. An average white collar professonal with 5 - 10 years experience will make an average of at least $60,000.

A 37% increase?!?! Hahahaha. What are they going to do if they don't get their 37% raise? Quit? Fire all those greedy bastards and hire new pilots.

Ben - Whoever gave you that information is incorrect, or possibly just very outdated.

Firstly that's not 10 year pay, and secondly there are far more than 10 pay steps.

A few points:

Korean Air's airline operation does reasonably well. You have to remember it has many currently unprofitable subsidiary ventures (hotels etc) that the airline revenue subsidises. Profit should be considered in that context.

$140k is misleading. Only senior wide body captains make that sort of money and they are subject to Korean tax of up to 38%. FOs and 737 captains are on much less.

So their after tax income is quite low compared to other large carriers especially when you consider the local cost of living in Seoul.

It is also misleading to compare airline pilots salaries to office workers. Pilot salaries are usually fixed higher than normal instead of calculating extra compensation for: shift work, absence from home, weekends, public holidays, stressful environment, and a potentially short earning window. An office worker taking 5 days leave gets 9 consecutive days off including 10 full nights due to the weekends. A pilot taking five days leave will usually get just that.