Release #: Vol. 85, No. 2
March 01, 2016

Our Union: Safety as the Highest Law

By Capt. Tim Canoll, ALPA President

“The safety of the people shall be the highest law,” said Roman orator and statesman Marcus Tullius Cicero. While aviation safety has always formed the bedrock of ALPA’s work, our commitment has rarely driven our work more clearly than in recent weeks, as Congress has begun work to reauthorize the FAA.

Since it was founded 85 years ago, ALPA has maintained that the most important safety feature on an airliner is a skilled, qualified, and experienced professional flight crew. We are adamant that the strong pilot qualification and training requirements initiated by Congress in 2010 remain solidly in place for the safety of the passengers, cargo, and flight crews.

As you’ll read in this issue, the facts have debunked some airlines’ claims that a pilot shortage is currently causing them to stop serving smaller communities. The “pilot shortage” excuse is also rightly being rejected as reason to compromise safety in the pursuit of widening the hiring pool and offering lower wages to increase profit by weakening the pilot qualification and experience standards that have made air travel safer. Providing a promising and rewarding career is what attracts skilled and qualified pilots to an airline.

Throughout its history, ALPA has worked with regulators and airlines across the industry to help develop and maintain dynamic and responsive training and qualification programs that reflect emerging technology and operating techniques, while at the same time ensuring that pilots maintain the strongest possible flying skills and judgment. It was in this context that our union worked as part of an FAA Aviation Rulemaking Committee with other stakeholders from across the industry to develop and recommend new qualification requirements. The regional airlines led this industrywide effort, recognizing that the safety of our industry is paramount.

Before the introduction of the House FAA reauthorization bill, I briefed Washington, D.C.-based journalists who cover aviation for major international and national news outlets to highlight ALPA’s priorities for the legislation. At the same time, ALPA members fanned across Capitol Hill, connecting with lawmakers about our top safety issues in the bill. As a union, we are speaking out with a determined and united voice on safety.

As Capt. Chuck Dyer (FedEx Express), his pilot group’s Master Executive Council (MEC) chairman, stated in an opinion piece published in the Memphis Commercial Appeal, “Properly regulating lithium batteries for ALL airline operations, cargo and passenger, is essential to the safety of our pilots, our airspace, and our community.” In addition to ensuring the safe transport of lithium battery shipments by air, ALPA pilots also stand united in making certain that the FAA reauthorization advances efforts to mandate the installation of secondary cockpit barriers on aircraft, ensures the safety of unmanned aircraft systems operating in U.S. airspace, and creates a stable source of long-term funding that fosters NextGen modernization.

Already, Congress has recognized the importance of our safety agenda as the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee unanimously adopted an amendment to require secondary cockpit barriers on all new passenger aircraft. After the committee’s action earlier this month, Capt. Jay Heppner, then the United pilots’ MEC chairman, said, “We believe that we will be able to include all U.S. airliners going forward with the final bill. Today was an excellent step toward completing that goal.”

In April, ALPA will explore many of these same issues in Canada, when our union hosts its “Air Transport in Canada Symposium: Time for Real Change Powered by Pilots.” Among other topics, the symposium will examine the important issues that must be addressed to enhance safety and airline service throughout Canada, including flight- and duty-time regulations and the Temporary Foreign Worker program.

As the FAA’s reauthorization expiration approaches on March 31, ALPA pilots will be closely engaged and highly involved on the key issues that define the safety of our industry. Similarly, we are working with members of Parliament and new government leaders in Ottawa, Ontario, to advance the highest standards of safety in Canada.

In both the United States and Canada, lawmakers have a critical opportunity to make certain that safety is indeed the highest law. On behalf of all the people who depend on air transportation, ALPA will make sure of it. 

This article is from the March 2016 issue of Air Line Pilot magazine, the Official Journal of the Air Line Pilots Association, International—a monthly publication for all ALPA members.

-###-