Air Line Pilot Magazine August 2023

‘A Decade of Difference’

During our union’s 10th annual Legislative Summit in Washington (see page 19)—and throughout this year on Capitol Hill and Parliament Hill—ALPA pilots’ view from the flight deck gives us authority and agency when it comes to aviation safety. At every level, U.S. and Canadian policy makers recognize our union’s credibility—and that ALPA will chart whatever course is necessary to keep flying safe.

On July 27, ALPA celebrated our 92nd anniversary. We were founded on safety schedules, and safety is front and center in our work today. In the United States, for example, Congress may have left Washington, D.C., for its August recess, but we’re keeping up the pressure on lawmakers to maintain proven aviation safety standards and prevent risk from being introduced into the air transportation system.

As lawmakers work on legislation to reauthorize the FAA, ALPA and its strong advocates are standing firm on maintaining first officer qualification and training requirements. On August 1, the United States marked the 13th anniversary of the signing into law of the Airline Safety and Federal Aviation Administration Extension Act of 2010, which has reduced U.S. airline passenger fatalities by 99.8 percent since the regulations it prompted were put in place.

Similarly, based on ALPA’s Board of Directors unanimous vote in support of the current airline pilot retirement age of 65, our union has fought ill-conceived attempts to raise the age through the FAA reauthorization without scientific study or operational analysis (see page 23). For decades, the airline industry has made regulatory changes based on data. As I noted on our new Air Line Pilot podcast, there hasn’t been any homework done by those who are opposing ALPA’s current policy, which is the result of our union’s enduring democratic process.

ALPA’s campaign to ensure that safety remains center stage in the FAA reauthorization has featured ads in The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, Politico, and Roll Call, interviews with the Today show and Reuters, and an opinion piece published in the Chicago Tribune and other newspapers across the country. Our campaign has been fueled by a grassroots initiative in which pilots and passengers sent more than 40,000 messages to Congress and engaged on social media as well as in local papers in communities from Newburgh, N.Y., to Ventura, Calif. The message has been unequivocal: any FAA reauthorization bill that would weaken aviation safety, increase flight delays and cancellations, and upend pilots’ collective bargaining agreements is unacceptable.

Our union is also working to incorporate into the FAA reauthorization bill language from the Cabin Air Safety Act (see page 25), which would help protect crewmembers and passengers from toxic fume events, and the Flight Education Access Act (see page 26) to expand funds available for federal student loans to cover flight training costs for students at two- and four-year aviation colleges and accredited flight schools. ALPA pilots’ determination has resulted in other pilot-partisan achievements. For example, thanks to ALPA members’ advocacy, lawmakers introduced the bipartisan Cargo Flight Deck Security Act, which would require all newly manufactured all-cargo aircraft to have an intrusion-resistant flight deck door (see page 24) and reintroduced the Saracini Enhanced Aviation Safety Act (see page 28) to require secondary barriers on the existing fleet of passenger airliners. Both measures are a necessary security complement to a requirement for aircraft manufacturers to install secondary barriers on all newly manufactured passenger airliners, which the Department of Transportation released in June.

With the appointment of Canada’s new minister of Transport, ALPA continues to represent our members with a level of credibility that no other organization can match. In contacts with government leaders, members of Parliament, and regulators, ALPA Canada has been fully engaged on critical issues affecting safety and the piloting profession (see page 29). As always, ALPA pilots are standing in solidarity in Canada and making their voices heard. Through strong participation in Calls to Action, ALPA members have sent hundreds of messages to policy makers on issues such as the implementation of flight and duty-time regulations, pilot training and licensing, and foreign pilots as temporary workers.

Our union always collaborates and never compromises on safety. ALPA pilots have been instrumental in pushing the United States and Canada to attain the gold standard for aviation safety around the globe. Stronger together, ALPA members have also set the gold standard for grassroots advocacy across the industry.