Flying pay
The variable part of crew pay, calculated per block or flight hour actually flown; the reason long-haul months pay more than short-haul.
Definition
Flying pay is the hourly component of cabin crew earnings, paid for each block hour (or flight hour, under some contracts) you operate. At full-service European and Gulf carriers it sits on top of a basic salary; at US carriers it is effectively the whole wage, with a rate per flight hour that rises through annual steps to top of scale. Some low-cost carriers use a per-sector rate instead, and boarding pay at half the hourly rate is a recent US addition.
What it means for you
Flying pay is what makes two crew at the same airline earn very different amounts: a 95-hour month of long-haul against a 65-hour month with standbys and a training day. It is also the component that disappears when you are sick, on leave or in ground training, which is why savings matter more in this job than in a salaried one.
In practice
A first-year Delta flight attendant earns $36.92 per flight hour and a top-of-scale colleague around $83–86, both assuming 75–90 hours a month; at Etihad the rate is roughly AED 55–60 an hour on top of basic.
Go deeper
Related terms
4 terms- Block hoursRoster & schedulingTime from the aircraft first moving under its own power to the parking brake being set: the unit airlines pay by and regulators cap.
- Basic salaryPay & benefitsThe fixed monthly amount paid regardless of hours flown; only one part of crew pay, and at US carriers barely present at all.
- Sector payPay & benefitsPay earned per flight flown rather than per hour — the model most European low-cost carriers use on top of a small basic.
- Pay scalePay & benefitsThe published table of hourly or monthly rates that rises in steps with years of service and rank.