Pilots in the United States are currently in incredibly high demand, and at major airlines, pilots have been able to secure huge pay raises. Unfortunately that’s not the case across the board, though. At Southern Airways Express, pilots have been paid as little as $12 per hour, and have been sued when they quit. This is an interesting story, so let me explain what’s going on here.
In this post:
The basics of Southern Airways Express & its pilots
Southern Airways Express is a small regional airline in the United States with its headquarters in Palm Beach, Florida. The airline has operations all over the country, and many of the carrier’s routes operate under the Essential Air Service program, meaning they’re subsidized by the government.
Southern Airways Express operates a fleet of roughly 50 propeller aircraft, with nearly 40 of those planes being Cessna 208 Caravans, with the capacity to carry nine passengers. Let me just emphasize that this isn’t a subsidiary to one of the major carriers (like American Eagle, Delta Connection, or United Express), as those airlines operate much larger regional aircraft.
The major airlines in the United States operate as Part 121 carriers, meaning that pilots need at least 1,500 hours of flight experience to land a job there. This minimum number of hours is part of the reason we have a pilot shortage, since it takes a lot of time and money to rack up those hours. Meanwhile Southern Airways Express operates as a Part 135 carrier, so pilots can start working there with just 250 hours of experience.
For the most part, the first officers are inexperienced, and would otherwise be racking up flight hours as a flight instructor, in order to reach the eventual goal of getting to 1,500 hours, and being able to work at a Part 121 carrier.
Why Southern Airways Express is suing dozens of former pilots
Southern Airways Express knows that it’s hiring pilots who are desperate to rack up hours, and it pays them accordingly. Southern Airways Express’ pilot pay has historically started at just $12 per hour. Eventually that pay increases to $18 per hour once pilots pass 600 hours, and then to $21 per hour once they pass 900 hours.
Not only does Southern Airways Express pay many of its starting pilots this little, but the company also makes pilots sign “training repayment agreement provisions” when they’re hired. With this, the airline reserves the right to fine pilots if they quit within a year. The airline argues that this is because of the money invested in pilots for training.
To be clear, it’s not like the airline is giving pilots some amazing education, and you don’t even need a type rating for the planes that the airline flies. Rather the company has a basic introductory course when pilots start, and the airline then uses this agreement to prevent pilots from seeking better paying jobs at another airline within a year.
Despite signing that agreement, many pilots are quitting within that period, and the airline is following through on suing them. Southern Airways Express is said to have filed lawsuits against around 80 pilots. For what it’s worth, the airline is believed to only have around 300 pilots, so that’s a significant number of people being sued. The lawsuits are said to be for up to $20,000.
Pilots say they felt unsafe flying for Southern Airways Express
Southern Airways Express argues that pilots agreed to fly for a certain amount of time, and they should follow through on that. However, many of the pilots who quit have a different take, arguing that staying at the airline was dangerous.
The Huffington Post has a fascinating story about many of the Southern Airways Express pilots who quit and are being sued. They largely argue that they didn’t feel safe at the airline, stating that they felt pressured to fly in poor weather and with inoperable autopilot systems, that the airline had substandard deicing equipment, that managers discouraged pilots from flagging maintenance issues and would argue with them over whether it was safe to fly, and that pilots were afraid to raise safety concerned because they could be fired and then indebted to the airline.
As one former Southern Airways Express pilot explains:
“There’s a lot of pressure to get passengers where they’re going, in potentially questionable weather or with questionable maintenance. People are pressured to go, and they don’t have the experience you’d find on larger jet flight decks.”
Another former Southern Airways Express pilot said he ran out of money while working for the airline, and told a manager he was broke and could no longer afford to get to work at his base in Arkansas. The company terminated him and sued him, with the company stating that “failure to report for work is certainly a reason for termination.”
Another pilot accepted a job as a captain, since he had enough flight hours for that, which was supposed to come with pay of $55 per hour. However, after training, he was told that he wasn’t ready, so he was instead forced to start as a first officer, being paid $21 per hour.
He quit, saying that he couldn’t afford to live on $21 per hour when he was hired with the promise of making a lot more. The airline told him that “I hope you understand that you signed a training contract,” and that “HR will notify you of the money that is immediately owed back to Southern. Good luck to you!” He was then sued for $10,000.
Southern Airways Express CEO Stan Little has disputed these allegations:
The company has maintained that it has little choice but to pursue the claims in court, citing a pilot shortage that has led higher-paying airlines to poach workers. He called the counter-lawsuit “a blatant attempt to politicize a simple and clear debt collection case.”
Little said Southern has produced “hundreds of new pilots over many years, and the program works only when both sides hold up their end of the bargain.” He compared the pilots to students who receive a two-year paid scholarship under the agreement they will stay at the university as a teaching assistant for a year after graduating.
“Now imagine the student attaining his degree and immediately leaving (and defaming the school who gave him the degree),” Little said. “No one would fault the school that offered the scholarship and the education for asking to be repaid.”
Bottom line
Southern Airways Express is suing dozens of former pilots who quit. The airline pays pilots a starting amount of as little $12 per hour, and also makes them sign a contract, agreeing that they’ll stick around for a year. Dozens of pilots quit, arguing that they didn’t feel safe at the airline, and in turn, the airline has sued them for up to $20,000.
This is just a really messy situation. On the one hand, I can appreciate that many pilots agreed to these terms, and also that it has long been the case that pilots struggle until they can get to the 1,500 hour requirement to work at a major airline.
On the other hand, this whole thing leaves a really bad taste in my mouth. Do you really want to put your life in the hands of pilots who are basically being exploited, and can’t reasonably afford to pay their bills? Pilots can’t live on the money that the airline is paying them, and management basically telling pilots “stop being poor” isn’t a good look either.
Unfortunately this is one of the major downsides to the 1,500 hour rule, which has long seemed nonsensical to me. European airlines have safety records that are just as good as airlines in the United States, but you have pilots in the cockpits of big jets with way less experience than that. But unfortunately even pilot unions in the United States support the 1,500 hour rule, since it gives them more leverage to negotiate higher pay. And that’s also why you see people on the bottom end of the industry being exploited like this.
What do you make of this Southern Airways Express pilot situation?
European carriers do not have the same safety record as the US does. Starting with the Air France accident (pilot error) to German Wings to the 737 carrier that ignored a pressurization problem to both Max crashes (both with significant pilot error), while the US hasn’t had a major crash in over a decade. Do your homework before you write something. Also understanding the difference between a training contract (illegal) and a promissory note for...
European carriers do not have the same safety record as the US does. Starting with the Air France accident (pilot error) to German Wings to the 737 carrier that ignored a pressurization problem to both Max crashes (both with significant pilot error), while the US hasn’t had a major crash in over a decade. Do your homework before you write something. Also understanding the difference between a training contract (illegal) and a promissory note for a type rating (legal) would be helpful to include.
$55 per hr is over 110k per year. Standard year is 2080 hours.
Ahhhh...no. FAA Part 135 regulations limit flight hours to 1,200 annually. Even if the pilots were able to fly that many hours then the pay would be $66,000. The reality is that they aren't able to fly that much and would be lucky to get 800-1000 hours a year.
No one flies 2,080 hours in a year.
...just leave out a tip jar for the “Aviation Artists!”
The 1500 hour rule was implemented after inexperienced pilots killed dozens in a fatal crash in the Pacific Northwest. Since then the safety record has been stellar. The only people who want to change the 1500 hr rule are those that don’t value safety , or airlines that want to save money. The author is ignorant and shouldn’t be writing these articles. Sounds like all he cares about is cheap tickets. There isn’t a pilot...
The 1500 hour rule was implemented after inexperienced pilots killed dozens in a fatal crash in the Pacific Northwest. Since then the safety record has been stellar. The only people who want to change the 1500 hr rule are those that don’t value safety , or airlines that want to save money. The author is ignorant and shouldn’t be writing these articles. Sounds like all he cares about is cheap tickets. There isn’t a pilot shortage, there is a shortage of airlines willing to pay properly for trained experienced pilots and therefore can’t attract pilots to fly their planes.
Those pilots had over 1500 hundred hours. They were not inexperienced. Please research before you say things you know nothing about.
And yet after the 1,500 hour rule we’ve had the safest era in US aviation. You ever fly as a CA with a 300 hour total time FO in a jet? If not you don’t have the right to opine on the subject.
Did any of the pilots pick up the phone and use the FAA's anonymous reporting line to report violations?
No. I didn't think so.
They're all young enough to be full of this "I don't feel safe" crap they got in high school, and young enough that committments don't matter.
I want to feel sorry for the pilots, but I really don't. Except for the one who was bait-and-switched, all of them knew what they were getting into. One year does not strike me as a particularly onerous or uncommon service requirement as part of a labor contract. That said, even interns are legal employees, subject to FLSA / minimum wage laws. At rates of $12 per flight hour, I'd be surprised if there is actually that much "excess" pay to seize beyond minimum wage.
Scientology has people sign a million year contract and this seems as one-sided as that.
These contracts are common in other fields that require lots of training. I know that our local public transit company - there government employees- you have to pay back the cost of you CDL training if you don't stay for at least 6 months
Of all the numbers cited here, $55/hour seems right for a pilot, on absolute terms given their “skill.” Certainly not minimum wage but also not 100’s of thousands per year.
$55/hour for a pilot comes out to about $50k per year. Do you really believe that’s all a pilot is worth?
An electrician recently wanted $650 to spend 30 minutes installing a new bathroom fan in my house. A landscaper wanted $1500 to remove a tree from my front yard.
After a decade and a half of experience flying aircraft, years of flight training and experience building, college, a masters degree and 100s of thousands...
$55/hour for a pilot comes out to about $50k per year. Do you really believe that’s all a pilot is worth?
An electrician recently wanted $650 to spend 30 minutes installing a new bathroom fan in my house. A landscaper wanted $1500 to remove a tree from my front yard.
After a decade and a half of experience flying aircraft, years of flight training and experience building, college, a masters degree and 100s of thousands of dollars on education and training costs, I believe I am worth a little more than what you seem to believe.
Pilots get paid for what they know how to do, not what they do on the normal day to day. Do you believe your family practice physician deserves to get paid what they do for seeing you once a year, checking your vital signs, answering some questions, and reviewing some lab work? Seems like a pretty simple task that anyone with a little training can do, right? But they get paid for so much more because of their knowledge and expertise when that normal annual physical becomes not so normal.
Pilots get paid what the market will bear and an airline pilot has historically been a high paying job. Even with the new round of contracts that you’re seeing, top salaries still haven’t hit historical norms when accounting for inflation. It’s also worth nothing that the salaries you speak of are top salaries and many pilots will never see it. “Experience” isn’t a negotiating card in respect to pay. It a pilots airline goes belly up or they voluntarily change jobs, they are back to making the lowest pay at their new shop.
Make no mistake, the fast hiring and “pilot shortage” of today will slow, and it will once again become a very difficult career to enter with lots of competition. My first flying job ever paid 12k/year. I have friends who were literally homeless trying to make it in the industry. It’s easy to look down on pilots and the pay when you look at current times. It wasn’t so easy just a short time ago.
To be making $50k a year at $55/hour, that means a pilot only works about 900 payable hours per year? I was thinking about $100k per year is a fair salary for a pilot. It sounds like you have quite a bit of education, but people can become a commercial pilot without a college degree. Also understand the cost & time of the dubious 1,500 flight hour requirement, but the $100k cost and time I've...
To be making $50k a year at $55/hour, that means a pilot only works about 900 payable hours per year? I was thinking about $100k per year is a fair salary for a pilot. It sounds like you have quite a bit of education, but people can become a commercial pilot without a college degree. Also understand the cost & time of the dubious 1,500 flight hour requirement, but the $100k cost and time I've read about is less than 4 years of most public colleges. I understand the on-the-job training aspect, but even plumbers have to go through 5 years of apprenticeship. As for the doctor analogy, couldn't that be said of almost all professions? And there's the same wide variation in competence depending on individual. The electrician and the landscaper analogy is more akin to comparison with airline, a business that takes revenue and pays employees down the line as well as that many others costs of running a business, not an employee like yourself. Most individual electrician/landscaper her/himself makes less than $55/hour.
The what you have achieved has no bearing on your market value. It's only your value as is perceived by someone will to pay you that matters.
This reminds me of the sub-minimum wage Subway Sandwich Artist “apprenticeship” in the UK.
Legal? Yes. Unethical? Absolutely.
Paying $12/hr for the responsibilities of a pilot is absolutely exploitation.
If they aren’t comfortable signing a contract then they should go be a free agent CFI/I.
The title of this post look bad on Southern, but now it makes the pilots look bad after reading.
There are several serious issues here. The obvious one is pilots desperate to gain hours/experience and exploitation by a company who relies on a continuous flow of new, forward looking pilots that who if they can afford to eat and have shelter for one year will be gone on day 366. Between these two competing forces are a host of other issues. Nothing mentioned about the emotions toll this takes on the pilots and the...
There are several serious issues here. The obvious one is pilots desperate to gain hours/experience and exploitation by a company who relies on a continuous flow of new, forward looking pilots that who if they can afford to eat and have shelter for one year will be gone on day 366. Between these two competing forces are a host of other issues. Nothing mentioned about the emotions toll this takes on the pilots and the impact it may have on complex problem solving and decision making. What if one day a trouble pilot may just point the nose downward or a lack of experience and a crappy company, a preventable incident occurs. Now imagine a regular flier reads this and now understands your flying with a cavalier company who seems to put revenues ahead of everything else. Where does that leave you? Why not pay a living wage and build some kind of loyalty, even if limited. Maybe then you can get at least 13 months out of your ‘labor’ force.
If the pilots can prove substandard contract standards and safety conditions they will win...and FAA willl need to get involved.
Otherwise the contract wins.
But given pilot shortage, it's a sorry state that they signed the contract.
It's a shame. I love using them out of PIT. I can go from PIT to Lancaster in an hour and snag fares from $35 each way (4.5 hr drive, $25 in tolls and $50 for gas if driven). This is an eye opener and I hope many of the awesome pilots I've met don't end up having to pay up
It's unclear in this report if all these lawsuits have come at once, fairly recently, or if they've happened over time, and perhaps some have been settled/adjudicated/resolved. Have any of these pilots successfully defended themselves against these actions?
Indentured servitude went out with the US Constitution.
Telling minimum-wage employees to risk their lives and the lives of their passengers is NOT an internship, Mr. Little.
And suing ex-pilots you exploited (as part of what seems to be a corporate strategy) is a very bad look. It will be interesting to see what the courts decide in these cases.
Slavery continued with the US Constitution, as did indentured servants, until the 13th Amendment after the Civil War. But these are small-claims cases, which might be brought in justice courts before judges who don't have the benefit of law school. A more interesting detail would be where the company chooses to file -- in Palm Beach, which may be thousands of miles away from where the pilots are now located?
The 13th Amendment is part of the constitution.
My statement stands.
Exploited? come on. They knew what they were getting in to, theyand freely entered into the legally binding agreement because it served their needs as well. Now suddenly they have an opportunity that pays much more due to pilot shortage, and they want to bail. $20k should be a drop in the bucket. Live up to your obligations, pay what you owe, and go become another overpaid union brat.
Read the contract and don't sign when it's not right! You said it yourself, typically new pilots gain hours as flight instructors. Still but cheap but definitely less risky than this! My son is in pilot training and will instruct through his school when he gets to that point
Sounds like involuntary servitude which is another form of slavery.
I'm not sure you know what involuntary means. They signed contracts. I suppose it's possible they signed under duress, in which case they could void the contract.
That's not to say this is necessarily an acceptable situation, but there's also nothing inherently wrong with employment contracts requiring the employee to work for a certain period of time or otherwise repay training costs, assuming the training actually cost the employer money and benefited the employee beyond...
I'm not sure you know what involuntary means. They signed contracts. I suppose it's possible they signed under duress, in which case they could void the contract.
That's not to say this is necessarily an acceptable situation, but there's also nothing inherently wrong with employment contracts requiring the employee to work for a certain period of time or otherwise repay training costs, assuming the training actually cost the employer money and benefited the employee beyond his term at the particular employer.
I suspect Exit Row meant *indentured* servitude, not involuntary, and I agree it does sound like an end run around the illegality of that.