Career Mode Employees? Crew On? How does it work?

I think the payments and the company passive economy are an utter mess.

I left my plane yesterday in an area which had over 20 missions for cargo all which would have netted me between 80 - 120 k each based on my previous experience of now having flown about 20 of these missions. They all take around 60-90 minutes (unless you speed up the sim) and they net you within the above range.

Now, I turn on the economy and I get 20k for a 6 HOUR flight and the insurance bill comes back at double that. Based on this I have switched the pilots off, have sold the 2nd plane and will now just do the missions myself and speed up the sim. Will do this in small batches as it now feels grindy and its eroding my fun of the game. The only reason I upgraded from 2020 was the career mode and ultimately the reason beneath this is I want to start an SAR company and I want to buy a TBM 930 (millions) for my cargo company.

Oh - and the daftest thing. They flew one mission and they are at EXACTLY the same airport where they flew from…