For more than 80 years, the Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA) has advanced aviation safety and security on behalf of pilots, crewmembers, and the flying public. During the early days of air travel, pilots lacked many basic safety provisions. That’s why ALPA’s founder and first president, Capt. Dave Behncke, brought pilots together with one goal in mind—to advance aviation safety. And that goal remains the core of our mission today. ALPA is the largest airline pilot union in the world, growing to more than 63,000 #TrainedforLife pilots at 35 airlines in the United States and Canada.

Air Line Pilot Association (ALPA) executive leaders and safety champions testified on behalf of 63,000 airline pilots at two hearings this week on Air Traffic Control (ATC) modernization and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Reauthorization.  

On June 5, nearly 200 ALPA members from 38 states conducted hundreds of meetings with members of Congress to press these decision makers to support pilot-partisan issues. This boots-on-the-ground effort known as “Hill Day” wrapped up ALPA’s seventh annual Legislative Summit on Capitol Hill.

On Sunday, ALPA, along with millions of people in this country, took time to honor the nearly 3,000 lives lost on September 11, 2001. An important facet of ALPA’s “never forget, never again” focus is to advance the security of aviation operations as part of the 9/11 legacy. In the aftermath of the attacks, Congress mandated that reinforced flight deck doors be installed on passenger airliners. 

Unfortunately, practical experience using these doors soon revealed a critical vulnerability—the reinforced door must be periodically opened during flight for pilots’ operational and physiological needs, which means that they may be compromised by one or more intruders who could rush the flight deck.To address this unintended security loophole, another layer of safety, the “secondary barrier,” was developed by airlines for use whenever the cockpit door is open during flight.

In order to enhance security for passengers, pilots and the national defense, ALPA continues to be a leader in efforts to enact legislation that would require secondary barriers on all passenger aircraft.