When it comes to our nation’s airspace, there are really only two end-users of this valuable resource—pilots and air traffic controllers. Each day, these professionals work collaboratively to ensure that millions of passengers and thousands of tons of cargo move safety and efficiently through North America’s airspace.
This week, ALPA pilot representatives and staff once again participated in the National Air Traffic Controllers Association (NATCA) annual Communicating for Safety Conference, where more than 1,500 controllers, pilots, and industry representatives met to discuss aviation safety issues. ALPA’s voice was featured on panels ranging from the importance of safety data programs at both the airline and national levels to the promised benefits of the highly automated and structured traffic management strategy to the challenges of accommodating new entrants into the national airspace system—including unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) and commercial space operations.
As the world’s largest nongovernmental aviation safety organization, ALPA serves as a valuable stakeholder on airspace issues. In addition to working each day with controllers, ALPA is also a member of the NextGen Advisory Committee (NAC). The NAC is a federal advisory committee that provides recommendations to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) on policy-level issues facing the FAA and the aviation community in implementing the Next Generation Air Transportation System, the multiyear air traffic control modernization initiative.
ALPA’s participation on the NAC ensures that ALPA pilots are represented on critical issues such as implementation of performance-based navigation, data communications, automatic dependent surveillance-broadcast, airspace redesign, and all of the associated transition challenges that are routinely encountered.
Collaborating on these important airspace issues is part of ALPA’s long-standing policy to maintain the highest level of safety within the national airspace system.