Airline pilots are highly trained to remain vigilant every day for any opportunity to mitigate threats in the cockpit. Currently, a different kind of threat is looming on the horizon—a threat that, if we do not take action to correct it now, will inflict real damage on not just pilots but all working Americans. That hazard is the upcoming health-care excise tax—more commonly referred to as the “Cadillac tax”—and we must take action now to avert it.

This week, ALPA launched its new "A Deal Is a Deal" advertising campaign, which urges the Obama administration to request consultations with the governments of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Qatar to address the unfair subsidies and benefits provided to their state-owned airlines. 

The ad campaign––which includes print and digital ads and #ADealIsADeal social media effort––will run through October. The campaign will also feature billboards at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport during September.

As part of ALPA’s ongoing commitment to ensure that U.S. airlines are able to compete fairly in a global marketplace, ALPA joined in comments by the Partnership for Open & Fair Skies to highlight the clear evidence found in Qatar Airways, Etihad Airways, and Emirates Airline own submissions to the U.S. Departments of Commerce, State, and Transportation of the subsidies they receive from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Qatar governments.

By Capt. Dan Adamus, ALPA Canada Board President

As the largest nongovernmental aviation safety organization in the world, ALPA has long asserted that the best safety feature of any airplane is a well-trained, well-rested, highly motivated flight crew. For years, ALPA’s Canada Board has joined together with Canadian officials and aviation stakeholders in a tremendous effort to develop flight-and duty-time regulations and minimum-rest requirements for airline pilots that are based on sound science.

Today’s closing of the Department of Transportation’s (DOT) comment period showcases yet again the outpouring of concern about the U.S. government’s need to ensure a fair marketplace by entering into consultations with the governments of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Qatar to get the facts on the subsidies they provide to Emirates Airline, Qatar Airways, and Etihad Airways.