For decades, ALPA has advocated for One Level of Safety for one simple reason: a tired pilot is a tired pilot, regardless of payload. However, when new fatigue rules were implemented in 2011, a flawed cost-benefit analysis of the regulations excluded cargo pilots. Despite this “cargo carveout,” there is no scientific basis for the separate pilot duty and rest rules based on the type of operations they conduct. Cargo pilots fly the same routes, in the same airspace, and into the same airports as pilots of passenger airlines, and inconsistencies in regulations put the traveling public at risk.
To correct this situation, at the end of 2019 Congress introduced the Safe Skies Act, which would apply the same flight, duty, and rest rules to cargo flights as commercial passenger flights to prevent the dangers posed by fatigued pilots. On the day it was introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives, ALPA stood shoulder to shoulder with cargo pilots from across the industry, as a united force with one voice in support of the bill.
This week, ALPA launched a digital advocacy campaign on the homepage of The Hill to continue to raise the awareness of this serious safety issue to decision-makers in Washington, D.C. ALPA’s commitment to achieving One Level of Safety for all remains unchanged, and ALPA will not let up from sounding the alarm until these science-based rules apply to all airline pilots. We ask you to stand with ALPA in promoting One Level of Safety for all airline pilots and stress the importance of the Safe Skies Act to your Member of Congress. Don’t delay; ask them to cosponsor S. 826/H.R. 5170, the Safe Skies Act.
