Andrew Green, Acting Business Editor
AIR JAMAICA'S pilots earn more than the average salaries of Jamaica's highest paid managers.
The concessions made in negotiations yesterday will bring them closer to international industry norms, but their salaries will remain quite attractive.
The average salary for the Air Jamaica captains before the salary adjustments was US$205,000 ($12.6 million) annually. A fledgling pilot earned US$118,000 ($7.4 million) annually.
By comparison,
the average male Jamaican chief executive earned $2.4 million, according to the 2004 Jamaica Employers' Federation Salary and Benefits Survey. Women chief executives earned less.
Apart from his basic pay, a pilot could easily earn half of his income from additional allowances.
A top pilot could end up carrying home $14 to 15 million in total compensation.
The result is that the pilots comprise about seven per cent of the airline's staff, but account for approximately 30 per cent of its US$100 million wage bill.
That was the reason for the battle between the pilots and airline over adjustment in work rules outside of the 5.6 per cent salary reduction which was agreed.
The money-losing national carrier has chalked up US$800 million ($49.3 billion) in liabilities and needs to cut its costs in order to survive.
The changes Air Jamaica's management had been seeking would have resulted in a US$12 million (J$744 million) cut in the pilots' pay package. The airline now has 180 pilots, a reduction from 220 in December, so the average pilot could end up losing a substantial amount in compensation.
Discussions with pilots went on for over two years under the Air Jamaica Acquisition Group administration. These were intensified following the re-acquisition of the airline by Government in December 2004 and only concluded yesterday.
