CitationShares v-p of flight operations and chief pilot J.D. Witzig on Tuesday confirmed that the fractional provider will raise its pilot wages as of January 1. These higher wages will raise the bar above what the NetJets pilots negotiated in the contract they ratified last month, meaning that CitationShares pilots will become the best-paid in the fractional industry. According to Witzig, the increase wasn’t a knee-jerk reaction to the NetJets contract; instead, management agreed to the higher wages in the summer and announced them to the pilot group in October. “It’s very important that we retain and attract the best pilots,” Witzig told AIN. “CitationShares management believes it’s critical to compensate all of our employees well and treat them with respect.” Under CitationShares’ new pilot wage scale, new-hire first officers will start at $40,000–versus $39,000 at NetJets–and first-year captains will make $64,000, well above NetJets’ $52,000. However, the NetJets captain pay is more closely aligned with that of CitationShares after the second year.