Today, ALPA released a new white paper titled Keep America Flying: A Flight Plan for Safe and Fair Skies. It lays out reasoned and achievable policy solutions to enhance aviation safety and provide a strong and fair economic environment for U.S. airlines and their employees. Safety and security topics detailed in the white paper include airline pilot supply, unmanned aircraft systems, NextGen, safe air transport of lithium batteries, secondary cockpit barriers, science-based fatigue rules for all-cargo pilots, and the Federal Flight Deck Officer program.

In addition, ALPA’s Keep America Flying flight plan underscores the need to ensure that U.S. airlines and U.S. airline workers have a fair and equal opportunity to compete in the global marketplace. Economic policy subjects discussed in the union’s white paper include flag-of-convenience and other atypical business practices, upholding the promise of Open Skies, and reforming the U.S. Export-Import Bank.

On July 16, I testified before members of the U.S. House Subcommittee on Transportation Security about our union’s support for the Federal Air Marshal Service (FAMS) as a key element in a multi-layered, risk-based approach to aviation security that also includes advancing the Federal Flight Deck Officer (FFDO) program and installing secondary cockpit barriers on passenger airliners.

In an opinion piece published on July 6 by the Huffington Post, I made clear that no one knows the pain of bankruptcy better than the professional men and women of the U.S. airline industry.

ALPA has a vested interest in growing competitive airlines that attract the best and brightest pilots. We firmly believe we should do everything within our power to remain the best in the world, because that is a ranking we can’t afford to lose. Unfortunately, there are challenges in our industry that threaten the future of our profession.

Our members were extremely pleased when the National Mediation Board (NMB) announced this week that the pilots at Virgin America had voted overwhelmingly in favor of ALPA representation. Of the 95.7 percent of eligible pilots who voted, 75.3 percent voted in favor of joining, showing their clear commitment to collective representation.