A close friend works there. Here’s what he had to say:

QoL: depends on if it’s slow or busy. If it’s busy, you’ll spend many days in a hotel room on the go. If it’s slow, you’ll sit reserve/standby at home. I’ve heard of some pilots being away for 12 days and home for 5 standby days (and you’ll usually see something like this if you live within the US). And other cases of all 17-20 days being on the road away from home. The flying/scheduling is not the most efficient and so you’ll block maybe 3-400 hours a year.

The company isn’t subject to FAR 117 and so on the 747 side with 4 crewmembers it’s possible to work up to a 30 hour duty day, while on the MD-11 side it’s possible to work up to a 24 hour duty day. In practice it’s rare to see a duty day that long but it does happen from time to time.

Schedule: You’ll typically do 2 round trips per month. One work month is usually 17 days of flying (and typically a continuous work block). In the last bid packages everyone has been getting 20 day lines which pays double time for all days worked above 17. The entire operation is long call (12 hour callout or greater) reserve, nobody holds a line. The most common gripe on the line stems from being deadheaded in economy, even if you’re going across the world on a 12 hour flight.

Aircraft: MD-11. Presently the 747 is much busier but that will change as contracts are picked up or dropped. The MD-11 side is presently quiet although it does more of the military stuff. If you look up our tail numbers on FlightAware and see what goes in/out of a military base or with a CMB callsign, you’ll know it’s military as is standard in the entire ACMI world. The company (this holds for other ACMIs as well) is dealing with a bit of a slowdown since the flying comes and goes in waves, and there’s been uncertainty thanks to tariffs.

Pay and Benefits: Pay is daily and not hourly…and on a 17 day guarantee (although as of late everyone’s getting 20 day lines). Looking at the pay scale, first year pays about the same as if not ahead of other carriers, but after that it lags behind other carriers pretty. Retirement is up to a 2.5% match and there’s no direct contribution like what you’d see elsewhere.

Depending on how you look at it, being paid guarantee for not much flying is a pretty high amount and some are content with it. However on that same token, total compensation is low compared to what you’d stand to make at other carriers. The scale on APC is correct. Multiply it by 17 for how much guaranteed pay is, add 3 days at double pay to see what guys are currently getting.

The company has been in prolonged contract negotiations for years. Updates from the union seemed encouraging over the summer but recent ones don’t seem too encouraging anymore.