Help centre · For airline staff

Realistic pilot pay and the payroll

Realistic pilot pay builds on Pilot pay: pilots still earn their rank's rate per block hour, and you can add the parts a real airline pays. It's all virtual money, kept separate from points, and nothing is paid for real.

Turn it on under Staff → Airline settings → Optional features → Realistic pilot pay (Pilot pay must be on), then set the rules on Staff → Money → Pilot pay. Staff with the Airline finances permission change the rules and each rank's rate; staff with only Ranks can see the rates. Every part starts at 0, which means off, so turning the switch on changes nothing until you set something.

On each flight

These are worked out when the flight is filed and kept on it, so changing a rule later never changes a flight that's already filed. A rejected flight pays nothing.

Aircraft size: a supplement (or a cut) for regional aircraft under 100 seats and for wide-bodies over 240 seats.
Seniority: a percentage per full year in service, up to a number of steps.
Bonuses: a fixed amount for a smooth landing (softer than a limit you set), an on-time departure, fuel used within the plan, and a clean flight (no ACARS check tripped and no hard landing). The smooth-landing and clean-flight bonuses need a measured landing: a typed-in rate or a landing ACARS missed earns neither. If staff correct a flight to a hard landing, or its fuel goes over the plan, those bonuses are taken back.
Peak season: extra pay in a fare season with more demand. This needs Seasonal fares (see Seasonal fares).
Less popular routes: extra pay on routes whose usual load is low.
Holidays: extra pay for flights filed on the holidays you list (the same days every year, such as 12-25 and 01-01). The day is the one at the departure airport when the flight was filed.
First officer: a co-pilot can earn a share of the captain's rate instead of their own rank's rate.

Holiday, peak season and less popular route pay together add at most 200 % of a flight's rate × block time.

Each month

On the 1st, last month is closed once for every pilot who flew in it:

Guaranteed minimum: pilots who flew are paid at least this many block hours, at their average rate that month.
Overtime: hours above a limit pay extra.
Profit sharing: when the airline made a profit that month (finances on), a share of it is split between the pilots by the hours they flew. It's booked in the finances as Profit sharing.
Year-end bonus: in December, a percentage of each pilot's pay for the year.

Pay starts on the day Realistic pilot pay is switched on: the months before are never paid, and the month it's switched on counts from that day. If a flight from a closed month is rejected, or accepted after the close, that month is corrected the next day (up to three months back). Profit sharing is never paid twice.

One payroll

With One payroll on, a flight's crew cost in the finances is the real pay of the captain and the first officer, plus a cabin crew cost per hour, instead of the flat crew cost per hour. So a pay rise shows up in the airline's profit. The monthly minimum, overtime and year-end bonus are booked as crew cost too. Staff → Money → Payroll shows each month's pay, revenue and labour-cost share.

For pilots

Logbook → My pay lists each flight's extra pay lines, a monthly payslip to print or save as PDF, a monthly earnings goal, and this month's peak-season mission. If you turn on the earnings board, pilots can choose to show their monthly pay there. It's off for each pilot until they tick it, and pilots who stay off leaderboards never show.